Chapter Fitzborn to Flecknoe of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Flags.

Banners of saints and images are smaller than standards, and not slit at the extremity.

Royal Banners contain the royal coat of arms.

Bannerols, banners of great width; they represent alliances and descent.

Pennons, smaller than standards. They are rounded at the extremity and charged with arms.

Pensils, small flags shaped like the vanes which surmount pinnacles.

Standards, much larger and longer than banners.

The Royal British Standard has three red and one blue quarter. The first and third quarters contain three leoparded lions, the second quarter the thistle of Scotland, and the fourth the harp of Ireland.

The Union Jack is a blue flag with three united crosses extending to the extreme edges: (1) St. George’s cross (red on white) for England; (2) St. Andrew’s cross (white on blue) for Scotland; (3) St. Patrick’s cross (red on white) for Ireland. In all other flags containing the “Union Jack,” the Jack is confined to the first quarter or a part thereof.

Flamberge, the sword which Maugis took from Anthenor the Saracen admiral, when he attacked the castle of Oriande la Fée. The sword was made by Weyland, the Scandinavian Vulcan.—Romance of Maugis d’Aygremont et de Vivian son Frère.

Flamborough (Solomon), farmer. A talkative neighbour of Dr. Primrose, vicar of Wakefield. Moses Primrose marries one of his daughters.

The Misses Flamborough, daughters of the farmer. Their homeliness contrasts well with the flashy pretenders to fashion introduced by squire Thornhill.—Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

Flame (Lord), Samuel Johnson the jester, author of Hurlo-Thrumbo, an extravaganza (1729). He dressed “in black velvet, with a white flowing periwig, and spoke sometimes in one key, and sometimes in another; danced sometimes, sometimes fiddled, and sometimes walked on stilts.”

This is not Dr. Johnson, though his contemporary. The dramatist lived 1705–1773; the lexicographer lived 1709–1784.

Flammer (The Hon. Mr. Frisk), a Cantab, nephew to lord Totterly. He is a young gentleman with a vivid imagination, small income, and large debts.—Selby: The Unfinished Gentleman.

Flammock (Wilkin), a Flemish soldier and burgess at the castle of Garde Doloureuse.

Rose or Roschen Flammock, daughter of Wilkin Flammock, and attendant on lady Eveline.—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Flanders (Moll), a woman of extraordinary beauty, born in Old Bailey. She was twelve years a harlot, five years a wife, twelve years a thief, and eight years a convict in Virginia; but ultimately she became rich, lived honestly, and died a penitent in the reign of Charles II.—Defoe: The Fortunes of Moll Flanders (1721).

Flanders Mare(A), Anne of Cleves, one of the wives of Henry VIII. She died at Chelsea in 1557.

Flash(Captain), a blustering, cowardly braggart, “always talking of fighting and wars.” In the Flanders war he pretended to be shot, sneaked off into a ditch, and thence to England. When captain Loveit met