Part 49

FRIESLAND, or VRIESLAND, a province of Holland, bounded S.W., W. and N. by the Zuider Zee and the North Sea, E. by Groningen and Drente, and S.E. by Overysel. It also includes the islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (see FRISIAN ISLANDS). Area, 1281 sq. m.; pop. (1900) 340,262. The soil of Friesland falls naturally into three divisions consisting of sea-clay in the north and north-west, of low-fen between the south-west and north-east, and of a comparatively small area of high-fen in the south-east. The clay and low-fen furnish a luxuriant meadow-land for the principal industries of the province--cattle-rearing and cheese- and butter-making. Horse-breeding has also been practised for centuries, and the breed of black Frisian horse is well known. On the clay lands agriculture is also extensively practised. In the high-fen district peat-digging is the chief occupation. The effect of this industry, however, is to lay bare a subsoil of diluvial sand which offers little inducement for subsequent cultivation. Despite the general productiveness of the soil, however, the social condition of Friesland has remained in a backward state and poverty is rife in many districts. The ownership of property being largely in the hands of absentee landlords, the peasantry have little interest in the land, the profits from which go to enrich other provinces. Moreover, the nature of the fertility of the meadow-lands is such as to require little manual labour, and other industrial means of subsistence have hardly yet come into existence. This state of affairs has given rise to a social-democratic outcry on account of which Friesland is sometimes regarded as the "Ireland of Holland." The water system of the province comprises a few small rivers (now largely canalized) in the high lands in the east, and the vast network of canals, waterways and lakes of the whole north and west. The principal lakes are Tjeuke Meer, Sloter Meer, De Fluessen and Sneeker Meer. The tides being lowest on the north coast of the province, the scheme of the Waterstaat, the government department (dating from 1879), provides for the largest removal of superfluous surface water into the Lauwerszee. But owing to the long distance which the water must travel from certain parts of the province, and the continual recession of the Lauwerszee, the drainage problem is a peculiarly difficult one, and floods are sometimes inevitable.

The population of the province is evenly distributed in small villages. The principal market centres are Leeuwarden, the chief towns, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker (qq.v.), Dokkum (4053) and Heerenveen (5011). With the exception of Franeker and Heerenveen all these towns originally arose on the inlet of the Middle Sea. The seaport towns are more or less decayed; they include Stavoren (820), Hindeloopen (1030), Workum (3428), Harlingen (q.v.) and Makkum (2456).

For history see FRISIANS.

FRIEZE. 1. (Through the Fr. _frise_, and Ital. _fregio_, from the Lat. _Phrygium, sc. opus_, Phrygian or embroidered work), a term given in architecture to the central division of the entablature of an order (see ORDER), but also applied to any oblong horizontal feature, introduced for decorative purposes and enriched with carving. The Doric frieze had a structural origin as the triglyphs suggest vertical support. The Ionic frieze was purely decorative and probably did not exist in the earliest examples, if we may judge by the copies found in the Lycian tombs carved in the rock. There is no frieze in the Caryatide portico of the Erechtheum, but in the Ionic temples its introduction may have been necessitated in consequence of more height being required in the entablature to carry the beams supporting the lacunaria over the peristyle. In the frieze of the Erechtheum the figures (about 2 ft. high) were carved in white marble and affixed by clamps to a background of black Eleusinian marble. The frieze of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates (10 in. high) was carved with figures representing the story of Dionysus and the pirates. The most remarkable frieze ever sculptured was that on the outside of the wall of the cella of the Parthenon representing the procession of the celebrants of the Panathenaic Festival. It was 40 in. in height and 525 ft. long, being carried round the whole building under the peristyle. Nearly the whole of the western frieze exists _in situ_; of the remainder, about half is in the British Museum, and as much as remains is either in Athens or in other museums. In some of the Roman temples, as in the temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the temple of the Sun, the frieze is elaborately carved and in later work is made convex, to which the term "pulvinated" is given.

2. (Probably connected with "frizz," to curl; there is no historical reason to connect the word with Friesland), a thick, rough woollen cloth, of very lasting quality, and with a heavy nap, forming small tufts or curls. It is largely manufactured in Ireland.

FRIGATE (Fr. _fregate_, Span. and Port. _fragata_; the etymology of the word is obscure; it has been derived from the Late Lat. _fabricata_, and the use of the Fr. _batiment_, for a vessel as well as a building is compared; another suggestion derives the word from the Gr. [Greek: aphraktos], unfenced or unguarded), originally a small swift, undecked vessel, propelled by oars or sails, in use on the Mediterranean. The word is thus used of the large open boats, without guns, used for war purposes by the Portuguese in the East Indies during the 16th and 17th centuries. The French first applied the term to a particular type of ships of war during the second quarter of the 18th century. The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) marked the definite adoption of the "frigate" as a standard class of vessel, coming next to ships of the line, and used for cruising and scouting purposes. They were three-masted, fully rigged, fast vessels, with the main armament carried on a single deck, and additional guns on the poop and forecastle. The number of guns varied from 24 to 50, but between 30 and 40 guns was the usual amount carried. "Frigate" continued to be used as the name for this type of ship, even after the introduction of steam and of ironclad vessels, but the class is now represented by that known as "cruiser."

FRIGATE-BIRD, the name commonly given by English sailors, on account of the swiftness of its flight, its habit of cruising about near other species and of daringly pursuing them, to a large sea-bird[1]--the _Fregata aquila_ of most ornithologists--the _Fregatte_ of French and the _Rabihorcado_ of Spanish mariners. It was placed by Linnaeus in the genus _Pelecanus_, and its assignment to the family _Pelecanidae_ had hardly ever been doubted till Professor St George Mivart declared (_Trans. Zool. Soc._ x. p. 364) that, as regards the postcranial part of its axial skeleton, he could not detect sufficiently good characters to unite it with that family in the group named by Professor J. F. Brandt _Steganopodes_. There seems to be no ground for disputing this decision so far as separating the genus _Fregata_ from the _Pelecanidae_ goes, but systematists will probably pause before they proceed to abolish the _Steganopodes_, and the result will most likely be that the frigate-birds will be considered to form a distinct family (_Fregatidae_) in that group. In one very remarkable way the osteology of _Fregata_ differs from that of all other birds known. The furcula coalesces firmly at its symphysis with the carina of the sternum, and also with the coracoids at the upper extremity of each of its rami, the anterior end of each coracoid coalescing also with the proximal end of the scapula. Thus the only articulations in the whole sternal apparatus are where the coracoids meet the sternum, and the consequence is a bony framework which would be perfectly rigid did not the flexibility of the rami of the furcula permit a limited amount of motion. That this mechanism is closely related to the faculty which the bird possesses of soaring for a considerable time in the air with scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings can hardly be doubted.

Two species of _Fregata_ are considered to exist, though they differ in little but size and geographical distribution. The larger, _F. aquila_, has a wide range all round the world within the tropics and at times passes their limits. The smaller, _F. minor_, appears to be confined to the eastern seas, from Madagascar to the Moluccas, and southward to Australia, being particularly abundant in Torres Strait,--the other species, however, being found there as well. Having a spread of wing equal to a swan's and a very small body, the buoyancy of these birds is very great. It is a beautiful sight to watch one or more of them floating overhead against the deep blue sky, the long forked tail alternately opening and shutting like a pair of scissors, and the head, which is of course kept to windward, inclined from side to side, while the wings are to all appearance fixedly extended, though the breeze may be constantly varying in strength and direction. Equally fine is the contrast afforded by these birds when engaged in fishing, or, as seems more often to happen, in robbing other birds, especially boobies, as they are fishing. Then the speed of their flight is indeed seen to advantage, as well as the marvellous suddenness with which they can change their rapid course as their victim tries to escape from their attack. Before gales frigate-birds are said often to fly low, and their appearance near or over land, except at their breeding-time, is supposed to portend a hurricane.[2] Generally seen singly or in pairs, except when the prospect of prey induces them to congregate, they breed in large companies, and O. Salvin has graphically described (_Ibis_, 1864, p. 375) one of their settlements off the coast of British Honduras, which he visited in May 1862. Here they chose the highest mangrove-trees[3] on which to build their frail nests, and seemed to prefer the leeward side. The single egg laid in each nest has a white and chalky shell very like that of a cormorant's. The nestlings are clothed in pure white down, and so thickly as to resemble puff-balls. When fledged, the beak, head, neck and belly are white, the legs and feet bluish-white, but the body is dark above. The adult females retain the white beneath, but the adult males lose it, and in both sexes at maturity the upper plumage is of a very dark chocolate brown, nearly black, with a bright metallic gloss, while the feet in the females are pink, and black in the males--the last also acquiring a bright scarlet pouch, capable of inflation, and being perceptible when on the wing. The habits of _F. minor_ seem wholly to resemble those of _F. aquila_. According to J. M. Bechstein, an example of this last species was obtained at the mouth of the Weser in January 1792. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Man-of-war-bird" is also sometimes applied to it, and is perhaps the older name; but it is less distinctive, some of the larger Albatrosses being so called, and, in books at least, has generally passed out of use.

[2] Hence another of the names--"hurricane-bird"--by which this species is occasionally known.

[3] Captain Taylor, however, found their nests as well on low bushes of the same tree in the Bay of Fonseca (_Ibis_, 1859, pp. 150-152).

FRIGG, the wife of the god Odin (Woden) in northern mythology. She was known also to other Teutonic peoples both on the continent (O. H. Ger. _Friia_, Langobardic _Frea_) and in England, where her name still survives in Friday (O. E. _Frigedaeg_). She is often wrongly identified with Freyia. (See TEUTONIC PEOPLES, _ad fin_.)

FRIGIDARIUM, the Latin term (from _frigidus_, cold) applied to the open area of the Roman thermae, in which there was generally a cold swimming bath, and sometimes to the bath (see BATHS). From the description given by Aelius Spartianus (A.D. 297) it would seem that portions of the frigidarium were covered over by a ceiling formed of interlaced bars of gilt bronze, and this statement has been to a certain extent substantiated by the discovery of many tons of T-shaped iron found in the excavations under the paving of the frigidarium of the thermae of Caracalla. Dr J. H. Middleton in _The Remains of Ancient Rome_ (1892) points out that in the part of the enclosure walls are deep sinkings to receive the ends of the great girders. He suggests that the panels of the lattice-work ceiling were filled in with concrete made of light pumice stone.

FRIIS, JOHAN (1494-1570), Danish statesman, was born in 1494, and was educated at Odense and at Copenhagen, completing his studies abroad. Few among the ancient Danish nobility occupy so prominent a place in Danish history as Johan Friis, who exercised a decisive influence in the government of the realm during the reign of three kings. He was one of the first of the magnates to adhere to the Reformation and its promoter King Frederick I. (1523-1533), his apostasy being so richly rewarded out of the spoils of the plundered Church that his heirs had to restore property of the value of 1,000,000 kroner. Friis succeeded Claus Gjoodsen as imperial chancellor in 1532, and held that dignity till his death. During the ensuing interregnum he powerfully contributed, at the head of the nobles of Funen and Jutland, to the election of Christian III. (1533-1559), but in the course of the "Count's War" he was taken prisoner by Count Christopher, the Catholic candidate for the throne, and forced to do him homage. Subsequently by judicious bribery he contrived to escape to Germany, and from thence rejoined Christian III. He was one of the plenipotentiaries who concluded peace with Lubeck at the congress of Hamburg, and subsequently took an active part in the great work of national reconstruction necessitated by the Reformation,

## acting as mediator between the Danish and the German parties who were

contesting for supremacy during the earlier years of Christian III. This he was able to do, as a moderate Lutheran, whose calmness and common sense contrasted advantageously with the unbridled violence of his contemporaries. As the first chancellor of the reconstructed university of Copenhagen, Friis took the keenest interest in spiritual and scientific matters, and was the first donor of a legacy to the institution. He also enjoyed the society of learned men, especially of "those who could talk with him concerning ancient monuments and their history." He encouraged Hans Svaning to complete Saxo's history of Denmark, and Anders Vedel to translate Saxo into Danish. His generosity to poor students was well known; but he could afford to be liberal, as his share of spoliated Church property had made him one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under King Frederick II. (1559-1588), who understood but little of state affairs, Friis was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible for the Scandinavian Seven Years' War (1562-70), which did so much to exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden. Friis died on the 5th of December 1570, a few days before the peace of Stettin, which put an end to the exhausting and unnecessary struggle.

FRIMLEY, an urban district in the Chertsey parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 33 m. W.S.W. from London by the London & South-Western railway, and 1 m. N. of Farnborough in Hampshire. Pop. (1901) 8409. Its healthy climate, its position in the sandy heath-district of the west of Surrey, and its proximity to Aldershot Camp have contributed to its growth as a residential township. To the east the moorland rises in the picturesque elevation of Chobham Ridges; and 3 m. N.E. is Bagshot, another village growing into a residential town, on the heath of the same name extending into Berkshire. Bisley Camp, to which in 1890 the meetings of the National Rifle Association were removed from Wimbledon, is 4 m. E. Coniferous trees and rhododendrons are characteristic products of the soil, and large nurseries are devoted to their cultivation.

FRIMONT, JOHANN MARIA PHILIPP, COUNT OF PALOTA, PRINCE OF ANTRODOCCO (1759-1831), Austrian general, entered the Austrian cavalry as a trooper in 1776, won his commission in the War of the Bavarian Succession, and took part in the Turkish wars and in the early campaigns against the French Revolutionary armies, in which he frequently earned distinction. At Frankenthal in 1796 he won the cross of Maria Theresa. In the campaign of 1800 he distinguished himself greatly as a cavalry leader at Marengo (14th of June), and in the next year became major-general. In the war of 1805 he was again employed in Italy and won further renown by his gallantry at the battle of Caldiero. In 1809 he again saw active service in Italy in the rank of lieutenant field marshal, and in 1812 led the cavalry of Schwarzenberg's corps in the Russian campaign. He served in the campaigns of 1813-14 in high command, and rendered conspicuous service at Brienne-La Rothiere and at Arcis-sur-Aube. In 1815 he was commander-in-chief of the Austrians in Italy, and his army penetrated France as far as Lyons, which was entered on the 11th of July. With the army of occupation he remained in France for some years, and in 1819 he commanded at Venice. In 1821 he led the Austrian army which was employed against the Neapolitan rebels, and by the 24th of March he had victoriously entered Naples. His reward from King Ferdinand of Naples was the title of prince of Antrodocco and a handsome sum of money, and from his own master the rank of general of cavalry. After this he commanded in North Italy, and was called upon to deal with many outbreaks of the Italian patriots. He became president of the Aulic council in 1831, but died a few months later.

FRISCHES HAFF, a lagoon on the Baltic coast of Germany, within the provinces East and West Prussia, between Danzig and Konigsberg. It is 52 m. in length, from 4 to 12 m. broad, 332 sq. m. in area, and is separated from the Baltic by a narrow spit or bank of land. This barrier was torn open by a storm in 1510, and the channel thus formed, now dredged out to a depth of 22 ft., affords a navigable passage for vessels. Into the Haff flow the Nogat, the Elbing, the Passarge, the Pregel and the Frisching, from the last of which the name Frisches Haff probably arose.

FRISCHLIN, PHILIPP NIKODEMUS (1547-1590), German philologist and poet, was born on the 22nd of September 1547 at Balingen in Wurttemberg, where his father was parish minister. He was educated at the university of Tubingen, where in 1568 he was promoted to the chair of poetry and history. In 1575 for his comedy of _Rebecca_, which he read at Regensburg before the emperor Maximilian II., he was rewarded with the laureateship, and in 1577 he was made a count palatine (_comes palatinus_) or _Pfalzgraf_. In 1582 his unguarded language and reckless life made it necessary that he should leave Tubingen, and he accepted a mastership at Laibach in Carniola, which he held for about two years. Shortly after his return to the university in 1584, he was threatened with a criminal prosecution on a charge of immoral conduct, and the threat led to his withdrawal to Frankfort-on-Main in 1587. For eighteen months he taught in the Brunswick gymnasium, and he appears also to have resided occasionally at Strassburg, Marburg and Mainz. From the last-named city he wrote certain libellous letters, which led to his being arrested in March 1590. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Hohenurach, near Reutlingen, where, on the night of the 29th of November 1590, he was killed by a fall in attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell.

Frischlin's prolific and versatile genius produced a great variety of works, which entitle him to some rank both among poets and among scholars. In his Latin verse he often successfully imitated the classical models; his comedies are not without freshness and vivacity; and some of his versions and commentaries, particularly those on the _Georgics_ and _Bucolics_ of Virgil, though now well-nigh forgotten, were important contributions to the scholarship of his time. There is no collected edition of his works, but his _Opera poetica_ were published twelve times between 1535 and 1636. Among those most widely known may be mentioned the _Hebraeis_ (1590), a Latin epic based on the Scripture history of the Jews; the _Elegiaca_ (1601), his collected lyric poetry, in twenty-two books; the _Opera scenica_ (1604) consisting of six comedies and two tragedies (among the former, _Julius Caesar redivivus_, completed 1584); the _Grammatica Latina_ (1585); the versions of Callimachus and Aristophanes; and the commentaries on Persius and Virgil. See the monograph of D. F. Strauss (_Leben und Schriften des Dichters und Philologen Frischlin_, 1856).

FRISI, PAOLO (1728-1784), Italian mathematician and astronomer, was born at Milan on the 13th of April 1728. He was educated at the Barnabite monastery and afterwards at Padua. When twenty-one years of age he composed a treatise on the figure of the earth, and the reputation which he soon acquired led to his appointment by the king of Sardinia to the professorship of philosophy in the college of Casale. His friendship with Radicati, a man of liberal opinions, occasioned Frisi's removal by his clerical superiors to Novara, where he was compelled to do duty as a preacher. In 1753 he was elected a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and shortly afterwards he became professor of philosophy in the Barnabite College of St Alexander at Milan. An acrimonious attack by a young Jesuit, about this time, upon his dissertation on the figure of the earth laid the foundation of his animosity against the Jesuits, with whose enemies, including J. d'Alembert, J. A. N. Condorcet and other Encyclopedists, he later closely associated himself. In 1756 he was appointed by Leopold, grand-duke of Tuscany, to the professorship of mathematics in the university of Pisa, a post which he held for eight years. In 1757 he became an associate of the Imperial Academy of St Petersburg, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1758 a member of the Academy of Berlin, in 1766 of that of Stockholm, and in 1770 of the Academies of Copenhagen and of Bern. From several European crowned heads he received, at various times, marks of special distinction, and the empress Maria Theresa granted him a yearly pension of 100 sequins (L50). In 1764 he was created professor of mathematics in the palatine schools at Milan, and obtained from Pope Pius VI. release from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and authority to become a secular priest. In 1766 he visited France and England, and in 1768 Vienna. In 1777 he became director of a school of architecture at Milan. His knowledge of hydraulics caused him to be frequently consulted with respect to the management of canals and other watercourses in various parts of Europe. It was through his means that lightning-conductors were first introduced into Italy for the protection of buildings. He died on the 22nd of November 1784.

His publications include:--_Disquisitio mathematica in causam physicam figurae et magnitudinis terrae_ (Milan, 1751); _Saggio della morale filosofia_ (Lugano, 1753); _Nova electricitatis theoria_ (Milan, 1755); _Dissertatio de motu diurno terrae_ (Pisa, 1758); _Dissertationes variae_ (2 vols. 4to, Lucca, 1759, 1761); _Del modo di regolare i fiumi e i torrenti_ (Lucca, 1762); _Cosmographia physica et mathematica_ (Milan, 1774, 1775, 2 vols. 4to, his chief work); _Dell' architettura, statica e idraulica_ (Milan, 1777); and other treatises.

See Verri, _Memorie ... del signor dom Paolo Frisi_ (Milan, 1787), 4to; Fabbroni, "Elogi d' illustri Italiani," _Atti di Milano_, vol. ii.; J. C. Poggendorff, _Biograph. litterar. Handworterbuch_, vol. i.