FONTANES 



3233 



FONTEVRAULT 



does not completely ossify until a 

 year or more after birth ; the others 

 close shortly before or after birth. 



Fontanes, Louis, MAKQUIS DE 

 (1757-1821). French politician 

 and poet. Born at Niort, March 6, 

 1757, he was prominent as a jour- 

 nalist during the Revolution. Later 

 he became an ardent supporter of 

 Napoleon, but ultimately went 

 over to the Bourbons. His poetry 

 belongs to the classic school, but is 

 not lacking in premonitions of 

 romanticism. He died in Paris, 

 March 17, 1821. 



Font de Gaume. Palaeolithic 

 cave, 165 yds. long, in Dordogne, 

 France. It contains many mural 

 paintings, monochrome and poly- 

 chrome, of the Magdalenian period, 

 some of them masterpieces of pre- 

 historic art. The bison, horse, 

 reindeer, mammoth, and rhino- 

 ceros are depicted, besides a human 

 face and hands, and designs of huts. 



Fontenay le Comte. Town of 

 France, in the dept. of Vendee. 

 It stands on the river Vendee, 30 m. 

 from La Rochelle. The chief build- 

 ings are the churches of Notre 

 Dame and S. Jean, and there are 

 also some fine old houses. There 

 are some manufactures, and also a 

 trade in horses, cattle, and agri- 

 cultural produce, the fairs being 

 important. An old town, Fontenay 

 was in Poitou during the Middle 

 Ages. A fortified town, it was 

 several times taken and retaken, 

 and there was also fighting here 

 during the Revolution. Pop. 9,750. 



Fontenay-sous-Bois. Town 

 of France, really a suburb of Paris. 

 In the department of the Seine, it 

 is 5 m. from the capital, with which 

 it is connected by tramways. It 

 lies to the N.E. of the Bois de 

 Vincennes. Market gardening em- 



ploys many of the inhabitants, 

 but the town is chiefly residential. 

 Pop. 15,200. 



Fontenelle, BERNARD LE BOVIER 

 DE (1657-1757). French author 

 and academician. He was born at 

 Rouen, Feb. 11, 1657, living there 

 till 1687, when he went to Paris, 

 where he remained till his death, 

 Jan. 9, 1757. His best work is to 

 be found in his books of popular- 

 ised science, Entretiens sur la 

 Pluralite des Mondes, 1686, and 

 Histoire des Oracles, 1687, and in 

 his eulogies on deceased members 

 of the Academy. His plays were 

 failures, and his Poesies Pastorales, 

 1688, have little merit. 



Fontenoy, BATTLE OP. Fought 

 May 11, 1745, between the British, 

 Dutch, and some Germans on the 

 one side and the French on the 

 other. The Allies' object was to 

 relieve Fontenoy, a fortified village 

 about 5 m. S.E. of Tournai, Bel- 

 gium, then besieged by the French. 



The French under Marshal Saxe 

 were drawn up across the road 

 from Mons along which, coming 

 from the S., the Allies had to ad- 

 vance. Obstacles had been placed 

 in front, while on their right was 

 the S^elde and the fortified village 

 of Antoing ; on their left was the 

 wood of Barri. The Allies under 

 the duke of Cumberland arrived 

 before this strong position on the 

 10th, and early on the llth were 

 ready for battle. Allied attacks 

 were repulsed, the Dutch in the 

 centre failing to take Fontenoy. 



After some delay the British and 

 Hanoverian infantry made their 

 advance. Lord Charles Hay of 

 the Guards greeted the enemy with 

 lively taunts, and the two lines 

 opened fire. At closer quarters 

 the fight was continued, and the 



cavalry were drawn into it. The 

 British and Hanoverians had closed 

 into a square, but after repelling 

 the first attacks they were at length 

 overwhelmed in the general mObe. 

 More French infantry were brought 

 up ; the artillery fire became more 

 intense, and, most vital of all, a 

 brigade of Irish bore down upon 

 the Allies. The square was broken, 

 but they withdrew from the field 

 in good order, although they left 

 behind some of their guns. The 

 losses were about equal, something 

 like 7,000 on each side. The British 

 and their allies had about 45,000 

 men engaged ; the French somewhat 

 more. A monument at the village 

 commemorates the Irish brigade. 



Fontes villa. Township of Por- 

 tuguese E. Africa, in the territory 

 of the Mozambique Company. 

 Now known as the Ponte do Pun- 

 gue, it stands near the mouth of 

 the Pungue river, 36 m. N.W. of 

 Beira, and is served by the Beira- 

 Mashonaland Rly. The Pungue 

 river is here crossed by a rly. 

 bridge about 420ft. long. 



Fontevrault OR FONTEVBAUD 

 (Well of S. Evrault). Town of 

 France, in Maine-et-Loire dept. It 

 is on the Vienne, 10 m. S.E. of 

 Saumur. Here, in 1099, Robert 

 d'Arbrissel (1047-1117) founded a 

 great Benedictine abbey and an 

 order after which it was named. 

 The abbey, which at one time 

 housed 300 nuns and 200 monks 

 under the rule of an abbess, existed 

 down to the time of the Revolu- 

 tion. The church, consecrated by 

 Calixtus II in 1119, contains re- 

 cumbent statues of Henry II of 

 England and his queen Eleanor 

 of Aquitaine, Richard Coeur de 

 Lion, and Isabella of Angouleme, 

 widow of King John. In 1804 the 



Fontenoy. The French and the Allies confronting each other before the battle. From a rainting by F. Philippoteaux 



South Kensington Museum 



1M 4 



