chants and negociants of the neighbouring kingdoms, for transacting affairs and settling accounts. 4. The fairs of Riga, two in the year; in May and September, much frequented by the English, Dutch, and French ships, as also from all parts of the Baltic. The best time for the sale of goods at Riga is during the fairs. Since the building of Petersburg, these fairs have suffered some diminution. 5. Fair of Archangel, during which all the trade foreigners have with that city is managed. It holds a month, or six weeks, commencing in the middle of August. The Muscovite merchants attend here from all parts of that vast empire; and the English, Dutch, French, Swedish, Danish, and other ships in the port of that city, on this occasion, ordinarily amount to 300. But this is not a free fair as the rest are: The duties of exportation and importation are very strictly paid, and on a high footing. 6. The fair of St. Germain, near Paris, commencing the 3d of February, and holding till Easter, though it is only free for the first fifteen days. 7. The fairs of Lyons, which M. de Chesne, in his Antiquity of Cities, alleges, from a passage of Strabo, were established by the Romans; though the fairs, as they now stand, are of a much later date. There are three in the year, each lasting twenty days, and free for ever. They begin on Easter Monday, the 26th of July, and the 1st of December. 8. Fair of Guibray, a suburb of Falaise, said to have been established by William the Conqueror, who was born at Falaise. It commences on the 16th of August; and holds fifteen days free by charter, and longer by custom. 9. Fair of Beaucaire, held partly in the city of that name, and partly in the open country, under tents, &c. It commences on the 22d of July, and only holds for three days; yet it is the greatest and most celebrated of all the fairs in that part of Europe, both for the concourse of strangers from all parts of the world, and for the traffic of all kinds of goods: the money returned in these three days amounting sometimes to about 6,000,000 of livres. FAIR HEAD, or Benmore, i. e. the Great Head, as it is generally and more properly called, is said, by Dr. Hamilton, to be the Rhobogdium of Ptolemy. It is not, however, the most northern point of Ireland, which was what Ptolemy meant to designate by this name. Mr. Wright therefore considers that geographer to apply this denomination to Malin Head, or Inishowen Head. This splendid promontory, whose highest point is 535 feet above the ocean's level, is, according to the latter writer, composed of a body of columnar green-stone, of such dimensions, that its articulations are not at first very obvious; but, upon surveying attentively one of the gigantic columns, the joints and separatrices are distinctly marked. The whole structure of the promontory consists of two parts; the one, at the sea side, is an inclined plane, strewn with enormous masses of the same stone, in the wildest and most terrific chaos; above this rises the mural precipice of columnar green-stone, 250 feet in height. The scene of ruin at the base of these Titanian pillars is probably not exceeded in Europe. Here the sea heaves in a solemn majes.ic swell, and in every retreat discloses the ap parently endless continuation of convulsive ruin, covered by the waters beneath the promontory. Upon this region of desolation, on the shore, enormous debris, either assuming the character of rude columnisation, or in a perfectly shapeless mass, whose weight is calculated at from 4000 to 5000 tous, are thrown together in all the savage sublimity of which we can conceive the wildest scenes in nature capable. a The scene just now described is discovered below the feet of the traveller, as he cautiously paces along the brink of the precipice. The surface upon which he treads, upon examination, will be found to consist of a regular pavement, formed of the extremities of enormous prismatic masses, composing the precipice, perfectly denuded and completely level. These prisms vary in form; some are quadrilateral, and appear to be composed of congeries of smaller prisms, aggregated in such a way as to suggest very obviously the clustered assemblage of shafts, which occur in the formation of a Gothic column. In tracing the summit of this bold head, several natural curiosities are pointed out; the first, to the west, is a fissure in the face of the precipice, called Fhir Leith, or the Gray Man's Path: the entrance to the pass, at the top, is extremely narrow; and formerly, a joint of green-stone, which had fallen across it, formed a sort of natural gate, through which the bold enquirer descended; entering, next, a gradually expanding passage, which leads to the chaotic heaps, at the base of the great colonnade. The natural architrave has lately fallen down, and quite choked up the passage. There are one or two similar chasms along the summit, which have frequently proved fatal to the cattle left pasturing upon the headland. There are several places, along the brink of the precipice, where the guide directs his followers to lie flat upon the ground, and cast the eye down perpendicularly to the foot of the column, a depth of 250 feet; this can be done in many places without the least danger. Some of the columns are magnetical. Near the highest point of Fair Head is an extraordinary cave, said to be artificial, and called a Pict's house. Not far hence are two small lakes, at an elevation exceeding 400 feet above the sea, called Lough Caolin and Lough-naCressa; one of these discharges its overflowing waters into the sea, through the whyndyke, called Carrick Mawr, or the Great Crag. FAIR ISLE, or FARO, as Buchanan calls it, a small island lying between Orkney and Shetland, thirty miles E. N. E. from the former, and twentyfour south-west from the latter. It is above three miles long, and nearly two broad, very craggy, with three very high promontories (one of them called Sheep Craig, 480 feet high), which are visible both from Orkney and Shetland. Buchanan says, it is 'encompassed with lofty rocks; and is every where inaccessible, unless upon the south-east, where, lowering a little, it affords a safe station for small vessels.' There is great plenty of sea and water fowl, and all kinds of fish upon the coast. There is a small harbour at the south end, which is full of rocks, where only small boats can lie, and another at the north-east end, larger and safer in summer, so that it serves commodiously enough for their fishery. The duke of Medina Sidonia, commander of the famous Spanish armada, in 1588, was wrecked on the east coast of this island. The ship broke to pieces, but the duke and 200 men made their escape. They lived here so long, that both they and the inhabitants were almost famished. At length the duke, and the poor remains of his people, were carried over to the main land of Shetland, and thence to Dunkirk, by one Andrew Humphrey, for which Andrew was rewarded with by our older writers. See FAY. Both, perhaps, came into our language from the French. An imaginary being, or spirit, supposed to appear in a diminutive human form, and generally of the female sex: as an adjective, fairy means given by, or belonging to fairies. 3000 merks. FAIRFAX (Sir Thomas), general of the parliamentary forces in the civil wars, was the eldest son of Ferdinando lord Fairfax, and born at Denton, the family seat, in Yorkshire, in 1611. He commenced his military career in the army under lord Vere in Holland; and, when the differences broke out into hostility between the king and parliament, took a decided part in the favor of the latter, being, as well as his father, a zealous presbyterian. He had a principal command in the north, where he and his father were defeated in several engagements, particularly at Adderton Moor, in June 1643. Sir Thomas was, however, more successful in some subsequent actions, and he distinguished himself so greatly, at the battle of Marston Moor, that, when the army was new modelled, he was appointed general in the room of the earl of Essex. In June, 1645, he defeated the king's forces at Naseby, after which he marched to the west, where he obliged a number of places to submit. Upon the death of his father, in 1648, he succeeded to his title, and the same year took Colchester, after a brave resistance by Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles Lucas, whom his lordship, after the surrender, basely caused to be shot. He pretended to be against putting the king to death, but took no steps to prevent it; and, at the time of the execution, was engaged in prayer with major Harrison. He de-clined commanding the army against the presbyterians, who afterwards appeared in favor of Charles II., and lived in retirement till measures were adopted for bringing back the king. He was at the head of the committee appointed by the house of commons to attend king Charles II. at the Hague, and, having assisted in his restoration, returned again to his seat in the country; where he lived in a private manner till his death, which took place in 1671 in the sixtieth year of his age. He wrote, says Mr. Walpole, Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax, printed in 1699; and was not only an historian but a poet. In Mr. Thoresby's museum were preserved, in MS., the following pieces: -The Psalms of David, the Canticles, the Song of Moses, and other parts of Scripture, versified; a poem on Solitude; Notes of Sermons; and a Treatise on the Shortness of Life. But the most remarkable of lord Fairfax's works, says Walpole, were the verses he wrote on the horse on which Charles II. rode to his coronation. He gave a collection of MSS. to the Bodleian library. FAIRFAX (Edward), natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax, was an, English poet who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. He was an accomplished scholar. Dryden classes him with Spenser, as a leading writer of the times; and even seems to give him the preference for har mony, when he observes that Waller owned himself indebted for the harmony of his numbers to Fairfax's Godfrey of Boulogne. He died about 1632, at his house, called Newhall, between Denton and Knaresborough. FAIRFAX, a county of Virginia, on the west bank of the Potomac, twenty-five miles long and eighteen broad. The chief town is Alexandria. FAIRFAX, a township of Vermont, in Franklin county, east of Georgia, on the bank of the Moille; nine miles from Lake Champlain. It FAIRFIELD, a populous maritime county of Connecticut, forty-six miles long and thirty-five broad, bordering on the state of New York. is divided into thirteen townships. Danbury and Fairfield are the chief towns. FAIRFIELD, the capital of the above county, called Unquowa by the Indians, is seated on the Mill-run, a little above its influx into Long Island Sound. It was burnt in 1777, by a party of British and loyalists; by which it incurred a loss of above £40,109. It has been since rebuilt, and is now flourishing. It carries on a considerable trade to the West Indies. It is twenty-two miles south-west by west of New Haven, sixtyfour north-east of New York, and 161 of Philadelphia. FAIRFIELD, a county of South Carolina, in Camden district, forty miles square; seated between the Wateree and Broad River. Winusborough is the capital. FAIRFORD, a town in Gloucestershire, remarkable for its church, which has curious painted glass windows. They are said to have been taken in a ship by John Tame, esq., towards the end o. the fifteenth century, who built a church for their sake. They are preserved entire, and the figures are extremely well drawn and colored. They represent the most remarkable histories in the Old and New Testament. The painter was Albert Durer. In the church are also a number of monuments, particularly a curious one to the memory of the founder, who died in the year 1500; with his effigy in white marble. Near it is a handsome free school, endowed for sixty boys; besides which this town has many other charitable institutions: it has also two neat bridges over the river Colne. It is twenty-two miles E.S. E. of Gloucester, and seventy-nine and a half west by north of London. FAIR WEATHER MOUNT, a mountain on the north-east coast of North America, about 14,900 feet above the level of the sea, and about twelve miles north-east of Fair Weather Cape. It is one of the principal summits of the Cordillera of New Norfolk; its base being formed by the summits of various surrounding mountains. It is covered with perpetual snow. Long. 222° 47′ E., lat. 58° 57' N. To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, Make her thanks bless thee. Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra. Nan Page, my daughter, and my little son, And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white. Shakspeare. Then let them all encircle him about, And fairy like to pinch the unclean knight: And ask him, why, that hour of fairy revel, In their so sacred paths he dares to tread In shape prophane. Id. Merry Wives of Windsor. This is the fairy land: oh, spight of spights, We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprights. Shakspeare. Be secret and discrete; these fairy favours Are lost when not concealed. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. Such borrowed wealth, like fairy money, though it were gold in the hand from which he received it, will be but leaves and dust when it comes to use. Locke. By the idea any one has of fairies, or centaurs, he cannot know that things, answering those ideas exist. Fays, faries, genii, elves, and demons, hear. Id. Pope. What farther clishmaclaver might been said, What bloody wars, if sprites had blood to shed, Nae man can tell; but a' before their sight, A fairy train appeared in order bright; Adown the glittering stream they featly danced; Bright to the moon their various dresses glanced. Burns. While frowning loves the threatening falchion wield, And tittering graces peep behind the shield, With jointed mail their fuiry limbs o'erwhelm, Or nod with pausing step the plumed helm. Darwim. This hour we part!-my heart foreboded this: Thus ever fade my fairy dreams of bliss. Byron. FAIRY. Fairies were most usually imagined to be women of an order superior to human nature, yet subject to wants, passions, accidents, and even death; sprightly and benevolent while young and handsome; morose, peevish, and malignant, if ugly, or in the decline of their beauty; fond of appearing in white, whence they are often called the white ladies. Jervaise of Tilleberry, marshal of the kingdom of Arles, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century, writes thus concerning them, in a work inscribed to the emperor Otho IV. It has been asserted, by persons of unexceptionable credit, that fairies used to choose themselves gallants from among men, and rewarded their attachment with an affluence of worldly goods; but if they married, or boasted of a fairy's favors, they as severely smarted for such indiscretion.' Similar tales are still current in Languedoc; where there is not a village without some ancient seat or cavern, which had the honor of being a fairy's residence, or some spring where a fairy used to bathe. This idea of fairies has a near affinity with that of the Greeks and Romans, concerning the nymphs of the woods, mountains, rivers, and springs; and an ancient scholiast on Theocritus says, 'The nymphs are demons which appear on the mountains in the figure of women.' The Arabs and other orientals have also their ginn and peri, of whom they entertain the like notions. Fairies have been likewise described as of both sexes, and generally as of minute stature, though capable of assuming various forms and dimensions. The most elegant representation of these children of romantic fancy is to be found in the Midsummer Night's Dream of Shakspeare. Spenser's Fairy Queen is an epic poem, under the characters of fairies. The belief of fairies subsists in many parts of our own country. The 'Swart fairy of the mine,' is scarcely yet believed to have quitted our subterraneous works. And, in the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these imaginary beings. FAIRY CIRCLE, or RING, a phenomenon pretty frequent in the fields, &c. long supposed to be traced by the fairies in their dances. There are two kinds of it; one of about seven yards in diameter, containing a round bare path, a foot broad, with green grass in the middle of it. The other is of a different size, encompassed with a circumference of grass. Some suppose these circles to be made by ants, which are often found in great numbers in them. Messrs. Jessop and Walker, in the Philosophical Transactions, ascribe them to lightning; which is thought to be confirmed by their being most frequently produced after a storm of that kind, as well as by the color and brittleness of the grass roots when first observed. Lightning, like all other fires, moves round, and burns more in the extremity than in the middle; the second circle arises from the first, the grass burnt up growing very plentifully afterwards. Mr. Cavallo, however, in his valuable Treatise on Electricity, does not think that lightning is concerned in the formation of them: 'They are not,' says he, 'always of a circular figure; and, as I am informed, they seem to be rather beds of mushrooms than the effects of lightning.' Other philosophers, who have examined these circles, believe they are produced by a kind of fungus breaking and pulverising the soil. Dr. Wollaston has examined this subject with his usual ingenuity. He observed that the fungi or mushrooms, first noticed by Withering, were found solely at the exterior margin of the dark ring of grass. The breadth of the ring, in that instance, measured from them towards the centre, was about twelve or fourteen inches, while the exterior ring, occupied by the mushrooms, was only about four or five inches broad. Dr. Wollaston conjectured, from the position of the mushrooms, that the rings were formed after the manner described by Dr. Hutton, by a progressive increase from a centre, and this opinion was strengthened by finding that a second species of fungus presented a similar arrangement, with respect to the relative position of the ring and fungi, the fungi being always upon the external margin of a dark ring of grass. 'I thought it not improbable,' says he, 'that the soil which had once contributed to the support of fungi might be so exhausted of some peculiar pabulum necessary for their production, as to be rendered incapable of producing a second crop of that singular class of vegetables. The second year's crop would consequently appear in a small ring surrounding the original centre of vegetation, and, at every succeeding year, the defect of nutriment on one side, would necessarily cause the new roots to extend themselves solely in the opposite direction, and would occasion the circles of fungi continually to proceed by annual enlargement from the centre outwards. An appearance of luxuriance of the grass would follow as a natural consequence, as the soil of an interior circle would always be enriched by the decayed roots of fungi of the preceding year's growth.' Dr. Wollaston often observed undecayed spawn, even below the most luxuriant grass. During the growth of the fungi, they so entirely absorb all nutriment from the soil beneath, that the herbage is for a while destroyed, and a ring appears, bare of grass, surrounding the dark ring. If a transverse section be made of the soil beneath the ring, at this time, the part beneath the fungi appears paler than the soil on either side of it, but that which is beneath the interior circle of dark grass, is found, on the contrary, to be considerably darker than the general surrounding soil. But, in the course of a few weeks after the fungi have ceased to appear, the soil where they stood grows darker, and the grass soon vegetates again with peculiar vigor, so that I have seen the surface covered with dark grass, although the darkened soil has not exceeded half an inch in thickness, while that beneath has continued white with spawn, for about two inches in depth. The section of the space occupied by the white spawn, has in general, nearly the same form, and may be compared to that of a wave, proceeding from the centre outwards, as its boundary on the inner side ascends obliquely towards the surface, while its exterior termination is nearly in a vertical position. The extent occupied by the spawn varies considerably, according to the season of the year, being greatest after the fungi have come to perfection, and is reduced to its smallest dimensions, and may, in some cases, not be discernible before the next year's crop begins to make its appearance. For the purpose of observing the progress of various circles, I marked them three or four years in succession, by incisions of different forins, by which I could distinguish clearly the successive annual increase, and I found it to vary in different circles, from eight inches to as much as two feet. The broadest rings that I have seen, were those of the common mushroom, (ag. campestris); the narrowest are the most frequent, and are those of the champignon (ag. orcades of Dr. Withering). The mushroom accordingly makes circles of the largest diameter, but those of the champignon are most regular. There are, however, as many as three other fungi that exhibit the same mode of extension, and produce the same effect upon the herbage. These are the ag. terrens, ag. procerus, and the lycoperdon bovista, the last of which is far more common than the two last-mentioned agarics. There is one circums ance that may frequently be observed respecting these crcles, which can satisfactorily be accounted for, according to the preceding hypothesis of the cause of their increase, and may be considered as a confirmation of its truth. Whenever two adjacent circles are found to interfere, they not only do not cross each other, but both circles are invariably obliterated between the points of contact; at least, in more than twenty cases, I have seen no one instance to the contrary. The exhaustion occasioned by each, obstructs the progress of the other, and both are starved. I think it also not unworthy of observation, that different species of fungi appear to require the same nutriment; for in a case of interference, between the one circle of puff-balls and another of mushrooms, they did not intersect; but I cannot say positively that I have seen more than one instance. I once found that a tree had interrupted the regular progress of a circle; circle; but this appeared to be only a temporary impediment, as the extension had proceeded at the usual rate; and, by passing obliquely from each side into the soil beyond the tree, had given the ring the form of a kidney, so that another year or two would probably reunite the two extremities into one curve surrounding the tree. Being desirous of ascertaining in what length of time a soil might again recover the power of producing a fresh crop of fungi, I cut a groove, in one or two instances, along the diameter of a mushroom ring, and inserted a quantity of spawn taken from its circumference, with the hope of seeing it vegetate for some distance near the centre; but the experiment failed altogether, as I shortly after quitted my residence in the country.' Another modern writer, Mr. Wilson, ascribes fairy rings to the action of grubs, concealed under the ring among the roots of the herbage; and supposes, that the fungi give a preference to these rings, on account of the abundance of dead vegetable matter to be found in them. FAIRY OF THE MINE, an imaginary inhabitant of mines. The Germans believe in two species; one fierce and malevolent; the other a gentle race, appearing like little old men, dressed like the miners, and not much above two feet high. These wander about the drifts and chambers of the works; seem perpetually employed, yet do nothing; some seem to cut the ore, or sling what is cut into vessels, or turn the windlass; but never do any harm to the miners, unless provoked, as Agricola relates in his book De Animantibus Subterraneis. FAITH, n. s. Fr. foy, foi; Span. and Port. fe; Ital. fedc; Lat. fides. Mr. Tooke considers our modern word faith, once written faieth, as the third person singular of the Saxon and others derive it FAITH FULLY, adv. FAITHFULNESS, n.s. FAITH'LESS, adj. FAITH'LESSNESS, n. s. verb pægan; Parkhurst, from the Greek πειθω ; and this from the Hebrew פתה, to persuade. Belief; credence: belief of revealed truth: and hence the truth believed, tenets held by man; a promise given by man or God: also, confidence, or trust, in a thing or In breaking faith with Julia whom I loved. I have this day received a traitor's judgment, And, therefore, I have often wondered to hear men of several churches so heartily exclaim against the implicit faith of the church of Rome; when the same The band that knits together and supports all com- pacts, is truth and faithfulness. They suppose the nature of things to be truly and faithfully signified by their names, and thereupon believe as they hear, and practise as they believe. Id. Sermons. Then faith shall fail, and holy hope shall die; One lost in certainty, and one in joy. Prior. Faith is an entire dependence upon the truth, the power, the justice, and the mercy of God; which dependence will certainly incline us to obey him in all things. Swift. We may meet with frauds and faithless dealings from men; but after all, our own hearts are the greatest cheats; and there are none we are in greater danger from. Mason. From every joy and pleasure torn, Burns. To praise him is to serve him, and fulfil Cowper. A nation famed for song, and beauty's charms, And by that name must die; yet, heaven bear wit- Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free; Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms; Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms! Beattie. ness, And, if I have a conscience, let it sink me, Even as the axe falls, if I be not faithful. Id. Id. Bp. Hall's Contemplations. Her failing, while her faith to me remains, For you alone Waller. : FAITH, in philosophy and theology, is that assent which we give to a proposition advanced by another, the truth of which we do not immediately perceive from our own reason or experience; or it is that judgment or assent of the mind, the motive whereof is not any intrinsic evidence, but the authority and testimony of some other who reveals or relates it. Hence, as there are two kinds of authorities and tes timonies, the one of God, and the other of man, faith becomes distinguished into divine and hu man: 1. FAITH, DIVINE, is that founded on the authority of God; or that assent we give to what is revealed by God. The objects of this faith, therefore, are matters of Revelation. See Rx VELATION and THEOLOGY. 2 FAITH, HUMAN, is that whereby we believe what is told us by men; and the object of it is matter of human testimony and evidence. See METAPHYSICS. FAITHORN (William), an ingenious artist, a native of London, was the disciple of Peak the painter, and worked with him three or four years. At the breaking out of the civil war Peak espoused the royal cause, and Faithorn, who ac I broke my faith with injured Palamon. Dryden. companied him, was taken prisoner, sent to Lon Well I know him; And faithful to his word. Id. Don Sebastian. don, and confined in Aldersgate. In this uncomfortable situation he exercised his graver; and executed a small head of the first Villars |