FLETCHER 



works of topography, novels, etc. ; 

 among them A Picturesque History 

 of Yorkshire, 1899-1903 ; A His- 

 tory of the St. Leger Stakes, 1902 ; 

 The Threshing Floor,1905; Mothers 

 in Israel, 1908 ; Recollections of a 

 Yorkshire Village, 1910 ; Memories 

 of a Spectator,, 1912 ; Ferris of the 

 Cherry Trees, 1913,; The Annexa- 

 tion Society, 1916 ; Scarhaven 

 Keep, 19^0; Exterior to the Evi- 

 dence, 1920. 



Fletcher, SIR LAZARUS (1854- 

 1921). British scientist. Born at 

 Salford, Mar. 3, 1854, he was edu- 

 cated at Manchester Grammar 

 School and Balliol College, Oxford. 

 Having taken a very good degree 

 in science and mathematics, he was 

 appointed a demonstrator in the 

 Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford, 

 and chosen fellow of University 

 College. He remained lecturing in 

 Oxford until 1890, when he was ap 

 pointed keeper of minerals in the 

 natural history department of the 

 British Museum. He was promoted 

 to be director of the department in 

 1909, and he resigned in 1919. In 

 1916 Fletcher was knighted, and 

 his many honours include an F.R.S. 

 From 1888 to 1909 he was secretary 

 of the Mineralogical Society. His 

 published works include Introduc- 

 tion to the Study of Minerals, 1884 ; 

 Introduction to the Study of Rocks. 

 1895. He died Jan. 6, 1921. 



Fletcher, PHINEAS (1582-1650). 

 English poet. Phineas was brother 

 of Giles Fletcher, and, like him, an 

 imitator of Spenser. He died rector 

 of Hilgay, Norfolk. His works have 

 been edited by Grosart, 1868, the 

 most important being a poem of 

 4,800 lines r entitled The Purple 

 Island, an 'extraordinary allegory 

 of the human body. 



Fletchers' Company, THE. 

 City of London livery company. Of 

 ancient origin and associated with 

 the Bowyers, the 

 Fletchers 

 (Fr. fleche, an 

 arrow) is a com- 

 pany by prescrip- 

 tion, not charter, 

 was granted arms 

 in 1467, and pos- 

 sessed a hall in 

 Fletchers' St. Mary Axe. 

 Company arms The old records 

 have been lost, the earliest extant 

 being dated 1775. The offices 

 are at 4, Broad Street Place, B.C. 

 Fleur-de-Lis (Fr., lily-flower). 

 In heraldry, an extremely ancient 

 symbol. Found among Egyptian 

 hieroglyphics and used by the 

 Anglo-Saxon kings, it was probably 

 a conventional representation of 

 some such flower as the lotus, river 

 side flags, or the iris. It consists of 

 a central bulbous petal and two 

 side curving petals, a fillet and a 



3200 



stalk, usually triparted. The fleur- 

 de-lis was early assumed as a cog- 

 nizance by the Carlovingian kings 

 and so became 

 identified with 

 the royal 

 houses of 

 France, who 

 bore the golden 

 flowers on a 

 blue shield. 



At first the 

 shield was 

 strewn with 

 the lis, but occasionally only three 

 appeared, some say in allusion 

 to the Holy Trinity, a fashion 

 which became permanent under 

 Charles VI. The French arms 

 (azure, semee de lis d'-or) was quar- 

 tered with the arms of England by 

 Edward III ; Henry IV reduced the 

 number of lis to three, and after the 

 treaty of Amiens arid the Union 

 with Ireland in 1801, the French 

 quartering was omitted from the 

 arms of the English royal family. 

 Pron. Fler-de-leess. See illus.p. 1549. 

 Fleurus. Town of Belgium, 

 in the prov. of Hainault. It stands 

 in a plain, 8 m. N.E. of Charleroi, 

 and is a junction for the rly. to 

 Gembloux, Landen, and Nivelles. 

 There is a steam tramway to Na- 

 mur. Four important battles have 

 been fought near this small Bel- 



'an town. In the first the duke of 

 runswick defeated the Spaniards 

 under Cordova, Aug. 29, 1622. 

 Under Marshal Luxembourg the 

 French gained a victory over the 

 allied Spanish, Dutch, and Ger- 

 mans, July 1, 1690. On June 26, 

 1794, the French inflicted a crushing 

 defeat upon the Austrians and 

 forced them to evacuate Flanders. 

 Finally, Napoleon here defeated 

 the Prussians, June 16, 1815, in 

 the battle usually known as the 

 battle of Ligny (q.v.). Pop. 6,100. 

 Fleury, FLORY, OR FLOWERY. In 

 heraldry, any charge decorated 

 with fleurs-de-lis. Examples are 

 crosses at the 

 ends of the 

 limbs or in the 

 angles, on the 

 tressure, and 

 on sceptres, etc. 

 See illus. p. 

 2375. 



Fleury, AN- 

 Fleury, in heraldry DEB HERCULE 



DE( 1653-1743). French statesman. 

 Born at Lodeve, Herault, June 22, 

 1653, he was educated at Paris, 

 took holy orders, and became chap- 

 lain to Louis XIV, who made 

 ihim bishop of Frejus in 1698, and 

 tutor to the future king Louis XV 

 A n 1715. 



/ In 1726 he became chief minister 

 and was appointed cardinal. His 

 administration was upright and 



FL1EGENDE BLATTER 



After Rigaud 



strictly economical, but he did 

 nothing to check the early dissipa- 

 tions of the king or the abuses of 

 the farmers -general. His foreign 

 policy was directed chiefly towards 

 ensuring peace, and to this end he 

 worked closely with the English 

 minister Walpole. The French in- 

 tervention in Polish affairs in 1733 

 was undertaken against his better 

 judgement, but he failed to prevent 

 France from being involved in the 

 war of the Austrian Succession, 

 1740, and died discouraged and in 

 ill-favour, Jan. 29, 1743. 



Fleury, CLAUDE (1640-1723). 

 French church historian. Born 

 Dec. 6, 1640, at Paris and educated 

 there, he practised for nine years 

 as an advocate, and then devoted 

 himself to theology. In 1672 Louis 

 XIV entrusted him with the edu- 

 cation of the young princes, &nd 

 he became nominally the abbot of 

 Loc-Dieu and later prior of Argen- 

 teuil. From 1691 onwards he was 

 writing his Ecclesiastical History in 

 20 volumes. He died July 14, 1723. 



Flexner, SIMON (b. 1863). Ameri- 

 can pathologist. Born March 25, 

 1863, at Louisville, Kentucky, he 

 took his medical degree in 1889 

 and studied in Germany. Professor 

 of pathological anatomy at Johns 

 Hopkins University, 1891-99, he 

 was from 1899-1904 professor of 

 pathology at Pennsylvania Univer- 

 sity. In 1903 he was given charge of 

 the laboratories of the Rockefeller 

 Institute for Medical Research, 

 where his researches added largely 

 to our knowledge of the causes of 

 infantile paralysis. 



Flibbertigibbet OR DICKIE 

 SLUDGE. In Scott's novel Kenil- 

 worth (q.v.), a mischievous but 

 ambitious dwarf, in league with 

 Wayland Smith in deceiving the 

 Berkshire villagers. N j 



Fliegende Blatter, DIB (Fly- 

 ing Leaves). German weekly illus- 

 trated comic paper. Established 

 in 1844, it is published in Munich. 



