Chapter Field of the Forty Footsteps to Fighting Prelate of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Field of the Forty Footsteps to Fighting Prelate

Field of the Forty Footsteps At the back of the British Museum, once called Southampton Fields. The tradition is that two brothers, in the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, took different sides and engaged each other in fight. Both were killed, and forty impressions of their feet remained on the field for many years, where no grass would grow. The encounter took place at the extreme north-east of Upper Montague Street. The Misses Porter wrote a novel on the subject, and the Messrs. Mayhew a melodrama.

Fielding The Fielding of the drama. George Farquhar, author of the Beaux' Stratagem, etc. (1678- 1707.)

Fierabras (Sir), of Alexandria, son of Balan, King of Spain. The greatest giant that ever walked the earth. For height of stature, breadth of shoulder, and hardness of muscle he never had an equal. He possessed all Babylon, even to the Red Sea; was seigneur of Russia, Lord of Cologne, master of Jerusalem, and even of the Holy Sepulchre. He carried away the crown of thorns, and the balsam which embalmed the body of Our Lord, one drop of which would cure any sickness, or heal any wound in a moment. One of his chief exploits was to slay the "fearful huge giant that guarded the bridge Mantible," famous for its thirty arches of black marble. His pride was laid low by Olivier, one of Charlemagne's paladins. The giant then became a child of God, and ended his days in the odour of sanctity, "meek as a lamb and humble as a chidden slave." Sir Fierabras, or Ferumbras, figures in several mediæval romances, and is an allegory of Sin overcome by the Cross. (See Balan.)

Fifteen decisive Battles (The), according to Sir E.S. Creasy, were:
   1. The battle of MARATHON (Sept., 490 B.C.), when Miltiades, with 10,000 Greeks, defeated 100,000 Persians under Datis and Artaphernes.
   2. The naval battle at SYRACUSE (Sep., 413 B.C.), when the Athenians under Nicias and Demosthenes were defeated with a loss of 40,000 killed and wounded, and their entire fleet.
   3. The battle of ARBE'LA (Oct., 331 B.C.), when Alexander the Great overthrew Darius Codomanus for the third time.
   4. The battle of METAURUS (207 B.C.), when the consuls Livius and Nero cut to pieces Hasdrubal's army, sent to reinforce Hannibal.
   5. In A.D. 9 Arminius and the Gauls utterly overthrew the Romans under Varus, and thus established the independence of Gaul.
   6. The battle of CHALONS (A.D. 451), when Aetius and Theodoric utterly defeated Attila, and saved Europe from devastation.
   7. The battle of TOURS (Oct., 732 A.D.), when Charles Martel overthrew the Saracens under Abderahmen, and thus broke the Moslem yoke from Europe.
   8. The battle of HASTINGS (Oct., 1066), when William of Normandy slew Harold II., and obtained the crown of England.
   9. The battle of ORLEANS in 1429, when Joan of Arc secured the independence of France.
   10. The defeat of the Spanish ARMADA in 1588, which destroyed the hopes of the Pope respecting England.
   11. The battle of BLENHEIM (13 Aug., 1704), when Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated Tallard, and thus prevented Louis XIV. from carrying out his schemes.
   12. The battle of PULTOWA (July, 1709), when Czar Peter utterly defeated Charles XII, of Sweden, and thus established the Muscovite power.
   13. The battle of SARATOGA (Oct., 1777), when General Gates defeated the British under General Burgoyne, and thus secured for the United States the alliance of France.
   14. The battle of VALMY (Sep., 1792), when the French Marshal Kellerman defeated the Duke of Brunswick, and thus established for a time the French republic.
   15. The battle of WATERLOO (18 June, 1815), when Napoleon the Great was defeated by the Duke of Wellington, and Europe was restored to its normal condition.
   The battle of GETTYSBURG, in Pennsylvania (3 July, 1863), when the Confederates, under the command of General Lee, were defeated by the Northern army, was certainly one of the most important, if not the most important, of the American Civil War.
   The battle of SEDAN (Sep., 1870). when Napoleon gave up his sword to William, King of Prussia, which put an end to the empire of France.

Fifth-Monarchy Men A sect of English fanatics in the days of the Puritans, who maintained that Jesus Christ was about to come a second time to the earth, and establish the fifth universal monarchy. The four preceding monarchies were the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman. In politics, the Fifth-Monarchy Men were arrant Radicals and levellers.

Fig Full fig. Full dress. A corruption of the Italian in fiocchi (in gala costume). It was derived from the tassels with which horses were ornamented in state processions. Thus we read in Miss Knight's Autobiography, "The Pope's throne was set out for mass, and the whole building was in perfect fiocchi" (in