ENCYCLOPAEDIA LONDINENSIS; 
O R, A N 
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 
O F 
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE. 
FRA F R- A 
F RANCESCHI'NI (Marc Antonio), a painter of emi¬ 
nence, born at Bologna in 1648. He was firft a pupil 
of Gio-Maria Galli Bibiena, and afterwards ftudied under 
Cignani. He worked at firft in partnerftiip with (Luani, 
whofe fifier he married, and they were together at Parma, 
Placentia, Modena, and other places, painting in churclies 
and palaces. One of Francefchini’s capital works was the 
ceiling of the great council-chamber at Genoa, in which 
he reprefented feveral of the principal atftions of the re- 
public, in a very grand ftyle of compofition. He painted, 
at the requeft of the fenate of Bologna, feveral pieces to 
be fent to pope Clement XI. witK which his holinefs was 
fo well fatisfied, that he invited him to Rome, and em- 
ployed^him in a grand defign for a mofaic in one of the 
cupolas of St. Peter’s. He was rewarded by being created 
a chevalier of the order of Chrift ; but he would not per¬ 
mit his friends to call him by his title, left it (hould in- 
Ipire jealoufy in his old raafter Cignani, He carried this 
delicacy of featiment fo far as to refufe to undertake a 
work in rivalry to Cignani’s fon. He declined, feveral in- 
vitations from foreign princes to fettle in their ftates, as 
well through love of freedom and independence, as 
through unwillingnefs to give uneafinefs fo the painters 
already eftabliftied there. The towns of Italy were the 
theatres of his labours; and during the courfe of a long 
and induftrious life he filled many of them with monu. 
meats of his genius. At the age of feventy-eight he ftill 
painted with the fpirit atid facility of’fiis younger days ; 
and the peculiar elegance of his pencil did not quit him 
to the laft. He died in 1729, at the age of eighty-one. 
FRAN'CESTOWN, an inferior townfliip of the Ame¬ 
rican States, in IJjllfborough county, New Hampftnre, on 
the eaft fide of Contecook river, about twenty-oire miles 
to the fouth-weft of Concord. It was incorporated in 
5772, and in 1790 contained 982 inhabitants. 
FRANC'FORT. See Frankfort. 
FRANCHE-COMTE', before the revolution, a pro¬ 
vince of France, and anciently a part of the kingdom c f Bur¬ 
gundy. Almoft one half of the country is level, abound¬ 
ing in grain, wine, pafture, hemp, See. The reft is moun¬ 
tainous, but breeds excellent cattle, and produces corn 
and wine. There are mines of copper, iron, lead, and 
filver, and fome mineral iprhigs, with quarries otNila- 
bafter and marble. The principal rivers are the Saone, 
the Ougnon, and the Doubs. It is now divided into the 
three departments of Mount Jura, the Doubs, and Up¬ 
per Saone. This country was formerly the fcene of the 
moft dreadful calamities, refulting from the ambition and 
cruelty of contending princes, till the year 1678, when it 
VoL. VIII. No. 479. 
w'as ceded to France. The inhabitants then ftipulated 
for the prel'ervation of tlieir ancient privileges, with re-: 
fpefl; to taxation; part of this agreement was afterwards 
violated by Louis XIV. but ftill they were lefs op- 
prefted than the other provinces of France. The natives 
are faid to be aftouter race of men than the French, and 
feem to refemble the Swifs in charadter. Like other 
mountainous countries, Franche-Comte abounds with 
mineral produflions, and has feveral grottoes and caverns 
that deferve the attention of the traveller. Among thefe, 
is a natural ice-cellar, near the abbey of Grace Dieu, about 
twenty miles from Befanfon. Its fituation is very ro¬ 
mantic. On the higheft part of a mountain, covered with 
a thick grove of lofty pines, is the opening of the ca¬ 
vern, which cannot be perceived till one is clofe to it, 
when, from its depth, which to the bottom is above two 
hundred and twenty feet, and the folemn gloom of the 
furrounding wood, it refembles what poets have feigned 
of the defeent to the infernal regions. The cavern itfelf 
is fixty feet in length and height, and forty,in breadth: 
the bottom is covered with ice, of which vaft pyramids 
rife from it, while others appear as it were fufpended from 
the arched roof, with their points oppofite to thofe of 
the former. Within the cave is a hole, or well, which 
is always full of water, and is never frozen; and, at the 
entrance, fome mould, which feems to have been tlirown 
tliere accidentally, is adorned with primrofes and other 
wild flowers. The ice, which, in the cavern, appears 
of a beautiful azure, is, when feen by day-light, remark¬ 
ably white. From this natural repofitory, the ice-houfes 
in Befan^on are fupplied, when the winters are too mild 
to freeze water in the open air. 
The grotto of Offelles, near Quingey, is fimilar to 
Poole’s Hole in Derbyfhire : it penetrates for nearly a 
mile into the mountain : but its height and breadth are 
different in different parts. In fome apartments of it, 
the roof is above a hundred feet high : but the paflages 
between thefe are fo low, that they who go through them 
muft creep on hands and feet. The infide of the'cavern/ 
is adorned with ftalaftites, and prelents feenes like thofe 
which are fo juftly admired in Poole’s Hole, and in Caf- 
tleton, a cavern much luperior to Poole’s Hole. The 
falt-works at Salins are alfo wortliy of attention : one of 
thefe is at the bottom of a fquare pit, or fliaft, about 
thirty feet in width, in which is a narrow ftair-caie: the 
defeent to this lower region is rendered awful by the noife 
of the pumps below, which, being lefledfed by the fides 
of the rock, founds like the groans of perforis in torment: 
at the bottom are two fine fprings of-Ialt water. 
B FRANCIllMO’NT, 
