Chapter Feed of Corn to Fern of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Fence Month The close time of deer, from fifteen days before Midsummer to fifteen days after it. This being fawning time, deer-hunting is forbidden.

Fenchurch Street (London). The church in the fens or marshy ground by the "Langbourne" side.

Fencible Regiments A kind of militia raised in 1759, again in 1778-9, and again in 1794, when a force of 15,000 was raised. The force was disbanded in 1802.

Fenella A pretended deaf and dumb sylph-like attendant on the Countess of Derby, in Scott's Peveril of the Peak.

Fenians An anti-British association of disaffected Irishmen, called the Fenian Brotherhood, after the ancient Fenians of Ireland: formed in New York, in 1857, to overthrow the domination of England in Ireland, and make Ireland a republic. The word means a hunter - Gaelic, fianna, from feadhach (pronounced fee-agh), a hunt. Before the Germanic invasion, a Celtic race so called occupied not only parts of Ireland and Scotland, but also the north of Germany and the Scandinavian shores. Oisin (Ossian) refers to them, and one passage is thus rendered in The Antiquary "Do you compare your psalms to the tales of the bare-armed Fenians?" Oisin was the grandson of Fionn, the "fair-haired righ (chief) of the Fenians," and all the high officers of this volunteer association were men of rank. It appears that the Fenians of Ireland (Eirin), Scotland (Alba), England (Socring), and Scandinavia, had a great civil battle at Gabhra, in Ireland, and extirpated each other. Oisin alone escaped, and he had slain "twice fifty men with his own hand." In the great Fenian outbreak of Ireland in 1865, etc., the leaders were termed "head centres," and their subordinates "centres." (See Clan-Na-Gael.)

Fennel Said to restore lost vision and to give courage.

"Above the lowly plants it towers,
The fennel with its yellow flowers,
And in an earlier age than ours,
Was gifted with the wondrous powers
Lost vision to restore;
It gave new strength and fearless mood,
And gladiators fierce and rude
Mingled it in their daily food;
And he who battled and subdued
The wreath of fennel wore."
Longfellow: The Goblet of Life, stanza 6.

Fenrir or Fenris. The wolf of sin [i.e. of Loki], meaning the goading of a guilty conscience. The "wolf" was the brother of Hel (q.v.). When he gapes, one jaw touches earth and the other heaven. In the Ragnarok he swallows the sun and conquers Odin; but being conquered by Vidar, he was cast into Niflheim, where Loki was confined.

Fenton One who seeks to mend his fortune by marriage. He is the suitor of Anne Page. Her father objects to him, he says, because

"I am too great of birth;
And that, my state being gall'd with my expense,
I seek to heal it only by his wealth."
Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor. iii. 4.

Feræ Naturæ Applied in law to animals living in a wild state, as distinguished from animals which are domesticated.

Feramorz The young Cashmerian poet, who relates poetical tales to Lalla Rookh, in her journey from Delhi to Lesser Bucharia. Lalla Rookh is going to be married to the young sultan, but falls in love with the poet. On the wedding morn she is led to her future husband, and finds that the poet is the sultan himself, who had gallantly taken this course to win the heart of his bride and beguile her journey. (T. Moore.)

Ferdinand Son of the King of Naples, and suitor of Miranda, daughter of Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan. (Shakespeare Tempest.)
   In Love's Labour's Lost, the same name is given to the King of Navarre.

Ferdinando A brave soldier who obtained a complete victory over the King of Morocco and Grenada, near Tarifa, in 1340. Being in love with Leonora de Guzman, Alfonso XI., whose life he had saved in the battle, created him Count of Zamora and Marquis of Montreal, and gave him the hand of Leonora in marriage. No sooner was this done, than Ferdinando discovered that Leonora was the king's mistress; so he restored his ranks and honours to the king, repudiated his bride, and retired to the monastery of St.