precarious, or at the pleasure of the lord; afterwards they were granted for life; then for a course of years longer than the natural life of a man; and, lastly, they became hereditary, which was their most perfect stage. This progress has been observed in every country where feudal tenures exist; and the same must have been known in Scotland, though in considering it we are necessarily carried back to periods of remote antiquity; for as fiefs were hereditary as early as the time of Malcolm II. they must have been in their precarious state several centuries before. See FEUDAL SYSTEM. FIELD, n. s. Sax. geld; Goth. field; FIELDED, adj. Teut. feld; Belg. velt; FIELD-BASIL, N. S. all from Goth. fa, level, FIELD-BED, flat, as Mr. Thomson FIELDFARE, suggests. Champaign; FIELD-MARSHAL, open ground; meadow; FIELD-MOUSE, any wide space or exFIELD-OFFICER, panse; the ground of a FIELD-PIECE, picture or drawing; the FIELD-PREACHING, ground of a battle; the FIELD-ROOM, action or exploits of an FIELD-SPORT, army in the field: fielded FIELDY, adj. is used by Shakspeare for, being in a field of battle: field-basil is a plant: a field-bed, one contrived for ready use in the field: fieldfare, the bird turdus pilaris: fieldmarshal is, strictly, the commander of a whole army in the field: as a field-officer is one associated in the command of a whole regiment: a field-piece is a piece of ordnance used in fields of battle as distinct from sieges: a field-mouse, the NITEDULA, which see: field-preaching, fieldroom, and field-sports, are sufficiently plain: fieldy, is an excellent old adjective, meaning roomy; open as a field.

Beholde ye the lilies of the feeld! Wiclif. Luk. xi. Jhesus cam down fro the hil with hem, and stood in a feeldy place, and the cumpany of hise disciples. Id. Luk. vi. I was borne free; and because I might live freely I made election of the solitude of the fields. The trees of these mountaines are my companions: the cleare water of these streams my mirrours. With the trees and waters I communicate my thoughtes and beautie. Skelton.

The bassa planting his fieldpieces upon the hills, did from thence grievously annoy the defendants. Knolles.

You maintain several factions;

And whilst a field.should be dispatched and fought, You are disputing of your generals. Shakspeare.

Romeo, good night; I'll to my truckle bed,
This fieldbed is too cold for me to sleep.

Since his majesty went into the field,
I have seen her rise from her bed.

Id.

Id. Macbeth.
Now, Mars, I pry'thee, make us quick in work;
That we with smoking swords may march from hence,
To help our fielded friends.
Id. Coriolanus.

Live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasure prove,
That hills and vallies, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

Raleigh. Winter birds, as woodcocks and fieldfares, if they come early out of the northern countries, with us shew cold winters. Bacon.

It is a base cowardliness, so soon as ever we are called from the garrison to the field, to think of runBp. Hall's Contemplations. ning away.

What though the field be lost,

All is not lost.

Milton's Paradise Lost. Around the fields did nimble lightning play, Which offered us by fits, and snatched the day; 'Midst this was heard the shrill and tender cry Of well pleased ghosts, which in the storm did fly. Dryden.

The fieldmouse builds her garner under ground.

Id. Let the field or ground of the picture be clean, light, and well united with colour. Id.

The god a clearer space for heaven designed; Where fields of light and liquid ether flow, Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below. Id.

When a man is in the field, a moderate skill in fencing rather exposes him to the sword of his enemy, than secures him from it.

Locke.

Field lands are not exempted from mildews, nor yet from smut, where it is more than in inclosed lands. Mortimer. Fieldmice are apt to gnaw their roots, and kill them in hard Winters. Id. Husbandry. The ill-natured man gives himself a large field to expatiate in; he exposes failings in human nature. Addison's Spectator.

I should enter upon a field too wide, and too much beaten, if I should display all the advantages of peace. Smalridge.

Who can this field of miracles survey,
And not with Galen all in rapture say,
Behold a God, adore him and obey.

Blackmore.

All field-sports I look upon as frivolous. Lord Chesterfield. The tumults of field-preaching and the freaks of the new birth. Warburton.

Let us venture into this large field, and take a view of the political, of the moral, of the religious, and of the domestic state of the world. Robertson's Sermon.

Not yet the hawthorn bore her berries red, With which the fieldfare, wintry guest, is fed: Nor Autumn yet had brushed from every spray, With her chill band the mellow leaves away.

Cowper.

First with fond gaze blue fields of air they sweep, Or pierce the briny chambers of the deep; Earth's burning line, and icy poles explore, Her fertile surface, and her caves of ore. Darwin. Field-marshal is a modern military rank in England, but superior to all others (except the captain-general), having the chief command of the whole army in the field. James.

When there is a field-officer of the day, it is his duty to visit all guards frequently during the day and night. In the morning, on the dismounting of the guards, he will collect the reports, and carry them to the governor or commandant.

Id.

FIELD, in heraldry, is so called, because it contains those achievements anciently acquired in the field of battle. It is the ground on which the colors, bearing, metals, furs, charges, &c., are represented. Among the modern heralds, field

is less frequently used in blazoning than shield or escutcheon. See SHIELD.

FIELD COLORS, in war, are small flags of about a foot and a half square, which are carried along with the quarter-master general, for marking out the ground for the squadrons and battalions.

FIELDFARE, in ornithology. See TURDUS. FIELDING (Henry), the son of lieutenantgeneral Fielding who served under the duke of Marlborough, was born in 1707. On the death of his mother, his father married again; and Sir John Fielding, who succeeded him in the commission of the peace for Middlesex, was his brother by this marriage. Henry was sent to study at Leyden; but a failure in his remittances obliged him to return in two years, when his own propensity to gaiety and profusion drove him to write for the stage at twenty years of age. His first dramatic piece, Love in several Masques, which was well received, appeared in 1727: all his plays and farces, to the amount of eighteen, were written before 1737; and many of them are still acted with applause. While thus employed, he married a young lady with a fortune of £1500 and inherited an estate of £200 a year from his mother; all which, though he retired into the country, he contrived to dissipate in three years; and then applied to the study of the law for a maintenance. In losing his fortune, he acquired the gout; which rendering it impossible for him to attend the bar, he therefore had recourse to his pen for immediate supplies; until he obtained the office of acting justice for Middlesex, an employment more profitable than honorable to him. Reduced at last by the fatigues of this office, and by a complication of disorders, he by the advice of his physicians went to Lisbon, where he died in 1754. He wrote a number of fugitive pamphlets and periodical essays; but is chiefly distinguished by his Adventures of Joseph Andrews, his Amelia, and his History of Tom Jones. His works have been collected and published, with his life prefixed, by Mr. Murphy. Besides these mentioned, he published The Champion, 2 vols.; A Journey from this World to the next; The History of Jonathan Wild; and after his death appeared his Voyage to Lisbon.

FIELDING (Sarah), sister of Henry Fielding, was born in 1714, and lived unmarried, and died at Bath in April 1768. She was the author of the novel of David Simple; a less popular production of a kindred class, called The Cry, a dramatic Fable; Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates, translated from the Greek (for which she was favored with some valuable notes by Mr. Harris of Salisbury); The Countess of Delwyn; The History of Ophelia; The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, &c. &c.

FIELD-STAFF, a weapon carried by the gunners, about the length of a halbert, with a spear at the end; having on each side ears screwed on like the cock of a match-lock, where the gunners screw in lighted matches when they are upon command; and then the field-staffs are said to be armed.

FIELD-WORKS, in fortification, are those thrown up by an army in besieging a fortress, or

by the besieged to defend the place. Such are the fortifications of camps, highways, &c. FIEND, n. s. Sax. Sax. fiend, fiond, a FIEND-LIKE, adj. foe; Goth. and Teut. fiend; Dan. fiende. An enemy; the great enemy of mankind; the devil.

I nyle that ghe be maad felowis of fendis. For ghe moun not drynke the cuppe of the lord, and the cuppe of fendis; ghe moun not be parteneris of the boord of the lord, and of the boord of fendis.

Wiclif. 1 Corynth. x. Here hauntis that feend, and does his daily spoyle; Therefore henceforth be at your keeping well, And ever ready for your foeman fell.

Spenser's Faerie Queene. Tom is followed by the foul fiend. Shakspeare. -This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen. Id. Macbeth.

FIENUS (Thomas), an ingenious and learned physician, born at Antwerp in 1566. He went into Italy to study physic under Mercurialis and Aldrovandus; and on his return distinguished himself so much in the university of Louvain, that he was chosen professor of physic, and was afterwards made physician to the duke of Bavaria. He wrote several works, among which were, De Viribus Imaginationis; and De Formatione Foetus. He died at Louvain in 1631. FIERCE, adj. FIERCELY, adv. FIERCE'NESS, n. s.

Fr. fier, feroce; Ital. feroce; Lat. ferus; Heb. 5, violence.-Minsheu. Cruel; savage; ravenous; furious; violen..

1

Therfore se the goodnesse and the fersnesse of god, ghe the fersnesse into hem that felden doun, but the goodnesse of god into thee, if thou dwellist in goodWiclif. Rom. xi.

nessc.

Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their Gen. xlix. 7. wrath, for it was cruel. The ships, though so great, are driven of fierce winds; yet are they turned about with a very small

helm.

Jumes iii. 4. Soone as thy dreadful trompe begins to sound, The god of warre with his fiers equipage Thou doest awake, sleepe never he so sownd, And scared nations doest with horror sterne astownd. Spenser's Faerie Queene.

With greedy force each other both assail, And strike so fiercely that they do impress Deep-dinted furrows in the battered mail : The iron walls to ward their blows were weak and frail.

Id.

Witherspoon.

His son, I am told, even at that early period of life, maintained his opinions, on every subject, with the same sturdy, dogmatical, and arrogant fierceness with which he now overbears all opposition to them in company. Seward.

FIERI FACIAS, n. s. In law. A judicial writ, that lies at all times within the year and day, for him that has recovered in an action of debt or damages, to the sheriff, to command him to levy the debt or the damages of his goods against whom the recovery was had.

FIERY, adj. Once written firy, from FIERINESS, n. s. SFIRE, which see. Containing fire; fire-like; heated: hence passionate, unrestrained.

Scarcely had Phoebus in the gloomy East Yet harnessed his fiery footed team,

Ne reared above the earth his flaming crest, When the last deadly smoak aloft did stream. Faerie Queene.

The sword which is made fiery doth not only cut by reason of the sharpness which simply it hath, but also burn by means of that heat which it hath

from fire.

Hooker.

I drew this gallant head of war,

And culled these fiery spirits from the world,
To outlook conquest, and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.

Id.

Id.

Then fiery expedition be my wing, Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king. Will any man put his finger into a fiery crucible, to pull out gold? Bp. Hull. The ashes, by their heat, their fieriness, and their dryness, belong to the element of earth. Boyle. Through Elis and the Grecian towns he flew ; The' audacious wretch for fiery coursers drew.

Dryden. The Italians, notwithstanding their natural fieriness of temper, affect always to appear sober and sedate. Addison. See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings : Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.

FIESCO (John Lewis), count of Lavagna, head of one of the noblest houses in Genoa, became master of a large patrimony at the age of eighteen, and headed a remarkable conspiracy against the Doria family. France and the pope (Paul III.) seem to have favored his plans. On the evening of the 1st of January, 1547, he had prepared a galley under pretence of a cruise against the corsairs, and waited upon Andrew Doria, to request permission to depart from the barbour early in the morning. The same night he assembled a large body of partisans at his house, on the pretence of an entertainment, to whom he made an eloquent appeal on the subject of this undertaking; and then hastened to the apartment of his wife, and acquainted her with his intention. She earnestly, but in vain, entreated him to abandon his desperate enterprise. He took leave of her, saying, Madam, you shall never see me again, or you shall see every thing in Genoa beneath you.' He now sallied forth, preceded by 500 armed men, and despatching parties to different quarters, himself proceeded to secure the darsena, or dock, in which the galleys lay. Going on board one of these, from which he was proceeding across the plank to the captain galley, the board gave way; and falling into the water, incumbered with his armour, he sank to rise no more! Thus terminated the life of this able ambitious young noble at the early age of twentytwo. His confederates failed in their attempt on Andrew Doria, but Giannetino his nephew fell beneath their swords. The loss of the leader however proved fatal to their conspiracy; his brother Jerome was deserted, and the whole family was ruined and banished.

FIESOLE (the ancient Fæsula), an ancient town of Tuscany, one of the twelve cities of Etruria, and the spot to which Catiline retired on the discovery of his conspiracy. It is a bishop's see, but at present litile more than a

heap of ruins: the situation is, however, elevated and salubrious, and the Florentines have villas here, where there are traces of an amphitheatre of great extent. Three miles north-east of Flo

rence.

FIFE. Fr. fifre; Teut. pfeiffi. A military music-pipe; an accompaniment to the drum.

Farewell the plumed troops, and the big war
That make ambition virtue! oh farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife.

Shakspeare.

Thus the gay victim, with fresh garlands crowned, Pleased with the sacred fife's enlivening sound, Through gazing crowds in solemn state proceeds.

Philips.

FIFE, or FIFESHIRE, a county of Scotland, bounded on the west by those of Clackmannan Kinross, and Perth; on the north and north-east by the Tay; on the east by the German Ocean, and on the south by the Frith of Forth. Though it extends to a much greater length along the coast, its mean dimensions are not above thirtysix miles in length, by fourteen in breadth; and its superficial area has been computed at 504 square miles, or 322,560 English acres. The face of the country is various. Towards the west it is mountainous having the Lomond hills rising to a great height; and a ridge of hills extends eastward almost to the coast, occupying the central district; towards the north and south the surface descends gradually to the Friths of Tay and Forth, exhibiting the most beautiful prospect of fertile and well-cultivated fields. Woods and plantations abound through the whole, and the hills are covered with sheep, whose wool is in high estimation.

Agriculture has been greatly improved of late years; and the farms, particularly on the northern declivity, bring very high rents. The rental of the lands, in 1811, was £335,290 14s. 6d. sterling, or almost a guinea an acre over the whole, and of the houses £38,756 1s. 6d. The farms in general are of a moderate size; few of them are what may be called large, the greater number are small, and the average perhaps about 150 acres. But there are many possessions from fifty down to eight or ten acres, occupied by their proprietors, or by manufacturers, tradesmen, and mechanics. In all new leases the rent is made payable in money, though in a few instances the amount may depend upon the price of grain, and vary therefore from year to year. The common length of a lease here, as throughout Scotland, is nineteen years. The farm-buildings present a great variety in regard to their materials and construction; but on the whole have much improved of late. More than a third of this country is completely and substantially enclosed with dry stone walls or thorn hedges, chiefly the latter. This is one of the Scottish.counties where flax is grown to some extent: though it is by no means a favorite with landlords, who, in some instances, have prohibited their tenants from Sowing more than one acre in a year. The cattle of Fifeshire have long been in high repute, both as fattening and dairy stock. The prevailing color is black; horns small, white, turned up at the points; bone small in proportion to the car

case; weighing, when fat, from three to four years old, from forty to sixty stone. The cows, when well fed, yield from ten to fourteen Scots pints of milk daily (nearly half as many Engglish wine gallons) during the best of the grass season, and continue long in milk; yet the dairy is here but a secondary object. The oxen were formerly much employed in labor, and were in request for this purpose for the counties along the north-east coast, but they are now very seldom to be seen at work. The horses are much the same as are found in all the lowlands of Scotland.

The staple manufacture is linen. Dunfermline has long been famous for its damasks and diapers. In several towns checks, ticks, osnaburgs, and other fabrics are made. In 1812 4,500,000 yards of linen cloth were stamped, of the value of £280,000; and in 1800, 600,000 yards of plain linen were supposed to be made by private families for their own use, which were not stamped. The number of hands employed in all the branches of this manufacture in 1800 was computed to be 23,192. Flax is spun into yarn almost in every family. The other manufactures are spirits, at four distilleries, one of which works for the English market; ship-building at Dysart, Kirkaldy, Wemyss, and Anstruther; salt at the two former places and other towns; leather at Kirkaldy, Cupar, Auchtermuchty, and Falkland; and there are breweries in every town, and most of the villages. At Cupar, Kirkaldy, and Leven, bricks and tiles are made to a large amount; and vitriol or sulphuric acid at Burntisland.

The principal rivers are the Eden and the Leven, both abounding with trout and salmon; and on no part of the coast of Scotland is the white fishery more productive than on that of Fife. Many lakes, formerly seen here, have been drained, and converted into arable land; but some of small extent remain, such as the Loch of Lindores, Kilconquhar Loch, together with Lochgellie, Comilla, and Lochpitty. Lead and copper and iron ore have been found here, and the sulphuretted ore of zinc; but coal is the most important and abundant of its mineral productions, and is well known to have been wrought here for above five centuries. There is a charter, dated 1291, allowing a coal-pit to be opened near Dunfermline. Another has been recently mentioned by Mr. Chalmers, which is dated 1284-5, by which it appears that coal was used at Tranent before that period. The greatest limeworks in Scotland are those belonging to the earl of Elgin, at Charles Town on the Forth, from which about 100,000 tons are raised annually; part of which is sold as it comes from the quarry, and 12,000 tons of coals are employed in calcining the remainder on the spot. Stones, resembling the precious garnet, are found in considerable numbers at Elie, and known by the name of Elie rubies.

This county is little distinguished by com merce. In 1800, 142 vessels, carrying 13,513 tons, and navigated by 883 seamen, were under the two custom-houses at Kirkaldy and Anstruther, within the county, and about half the number of each was supposed to be under those