FOX, GEORGE FRAGONARD, JEAN-HONORÉ
FOX, RICHARD FRAHN, CHRISTIAN MARTIN
FOX, RORERT WERE FRAME
FOX, SIR STEPHEN FRAMINGHAM
FOX, SIR WILLIAM FRAMLINGHAM
FOX FRANC
FOXE, JOHN FRANÇAIS, ANTOINE
FOXGLOVE FRANÇAIS, FRANÇOIS LOUIS
FOX INDIANS FRANCATELLI, CHARLES ELMÉ
FOX MORCILLO, SEBASTIAN FRANCAVILLA FONTANA
FOY, MAXIMILIEN SÉBASTIEN FRANCE, ANATOLE
FRAAS, KARL NIKOLAS FRANCE (part)
FRACASTORO, GIROLAMO
FOX, GEORGE (1624-1691), the founder of the "Society of Friends" or
"Quakers," was born at Drayton, Leicestershire, in July 1624. His
father, Christopher Fox, called by the neighbours "Righteous Christer,"
was a weaver by occupation; and his mother, Mary Lago, "an upright woman
and accomplished above most of her degree," was "of the stock of the
martyrs." George from his childhood "appeared of another frame than the
rest of his brethren, being more religious, inward, still, solid and
observing beyond his years"; and he himself declares: "When I came to
eleven years of age I knew pureness and righteousness; for while a child
I was taught how to walk to be kept pure." Some of his relations wished
that he should be educated for the ministry; but his father apprenticed
him to a shoemaker, who also dealt in wool and cattle. In this service
he remained till his nineteenth year. According to Penn, "he took most
delight in sheep," but he himself simply says: "A good deal went through
my hands.... People had generally a love to me for my innocency and
honesty." In 1643, being upon business at a fair, and having accompanied
some friends to the village public-house, he was troubled by a proposal
to "drink healths," and withdrew in grief of spirit. "When I had done
what business I had to do I returned home, but did not go to bed that
night, nor could I sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and
sometimes prayed and cried to the Lord, who said unto me, 'Thou seest
how young people go together into vanity and old people into the earth;
thou must forsake all, both young and old, and keep out of all, and be a
stranger unto all.' Then, at the command of God, on the ninth day of the
seventh month, 1643, I left my relations and broke off all familiarity
or fellowship with old or young."
Thus briefly he describes what appears to have been the greatest moral
crisis in his life. The four years which followed were a time of great
perplexity and distress, though sometimes "I had intermissions, and was
sometimes brought into such a heavenly joy that I thought I had been in
Abraham's bosom." He would go from town to town, "travelling up and down
as a stranger in the earth, which way the Lord inclined my heart; taking
a chamber to myself in the town where I came, and tarrying sometimes a
month, more or less, in a place"; and the reason he gives for this
migratory habit is that he was "afraid both of professor and profane,
lest, being a tender young man, he should be hurt by conversing much
with either." The same fear often led him to shun all society for days
at a time; but frequently he would apply to "professors" for spiritual
direction and consolation. These applications, however, never proved
successful; he invariably found that his advisers "possessed not what
they professed." Some recommended marriage, others enlistment as a
soldier in the civil wars; one "ancient priest" bade him take tobacco
and sing psalms; another of the same fraternity, "in high account,"
advised physic and blood-letting.
About the beginning of 1646 his thoughts began to take more definite
shape. One day, approaching Coventry, "the Lord opened to him" that none
were true believers but such as were born of God and had passed from
death unto life; and this was soon followed by other "openings" to the
effect that "being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and
qualify men to be ministers of Christ," and that "God who made the world
did not dwell in temples made with hands." He also experienced deeper
manifestations of Christ within his own soul. "When I myself was in the
deep, shut up under all [the burden of corruptions], I could not believe
that I should ever overcome; my troubles, my sorrows and my temptations
were so great that I thought many times I should have despaired, I was
so tempted. But when Christ opened to me how He was tempted by the same
devil, and overcame him and bruised his head, and that through Him, and
His power, light, grace and spirit, I should overcome also, I had
confidence in Him; so He it was that opened to me, when I was shut up
and had no hope nor faith. Christ, who had enlightened me, gave me His
light to believe in; He gave me hope which He himself revealed in me;
and He gave me His spirit and grace, which I found sufficient in the
deeps and in weakness." In 1647 he records that at a time when all
outward help had failed "I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even
Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.' And when I heard it my
heart did leap for joy." In the same year he first openly declared his
message in the neighbourhood of Dukinfield and Manchester (see FRIENDS,
SOCIETY OF).
In 1649, as he was walking towards Nottingham, he heard the bell of the
"steeple house" of the city, and was admonished by an inward voice to go
forward and cry against the great idol and the worshippers in it.
Entering the church he found the preacher engaged in expounding the
words, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," from which the
ordinary Protestant doctrine of the supreme authority of Scripture was
being enforced in a manner which appeared to Fox so defective or
erroneous as to call for his immediate and most energetic protest.
Lifting up his voice against the preacher's doctrine, he declared that
it is not by the Scripture alone, but by the divine light by which the
Scriptures were given, that doctrines ought to be judged. He was carried
off to prison, where he was detained for some time, and from which he
was released only by the favour of the sheriff, whose sympathies he had
succeeded in enlisting. In 1650 he was imprisoned for about a year at
Derby on a charge of blasphemy. On his release, overwrought and weakened
by six months spent "in the common gaol and dungeon," he performed what
was almost the only and certainly the most pronounced act of his life
which had the appearance of wild fanaticism. Through the streets of
Lichfield, on market day, he walked barefoot, crying, "Woe to the bloody
city of Lichfield." His own explanation of the act, connecting it with
the martyrdom of a thousand Christians in the time of Diocletian, is not
convincing. His proceeding was probably due to a horror of the city
arising from a subconscious memory of what he must have heard in
childhood from his mother ("of the stock of the martyrs") concerning a
martyr, a woman, burnt in the reign of Mary at Lichfield, who had been
taken thither from Mancetter, a village two miles from his home in which
he had worked as a journeyman shoemaker (see _The Martyrs Glover and
Lewis of Mancetter_, by the Rev. B. Richings). He must also have heard
of the burning of Edward Wightman in the same city in 1612, the last
person burned for heresy in England.
It would be here out of place to follow with any minuteness the details
of his subsequent imprisonments, such as that at Carlisle in 1653;
London 1654; Launceston 1656; Lancaster 1660, and again in 1663, whence
he was taken to Scarborough in 1665; and Worcester 1673. During these
terms of imprisonment his pen was not idle, as is amply shown by the
very numerous letters, pastorals and exhortations which have been
preserved; while during his intervals of liberty he was unwearied in the
work of "declaring truth" in all parts of the country. In 1669 he
married Margaret, widow of Judge Fell, of Swarthmoor, near Ulverston,
who, with her family, had been among his earliest converts. In 1671 he
visited Barbados, Jamaica, and the American continent, and shortly after
his return in 1673 he was, as has been already noted, apprehended in
Worcestershire for attending meetings that were forbidden by the law. At
Worcester he suffered a captivity of nearly fourteen months. In 1677 he
visited Holland along with Barclay, Penn and seven others; and this
visit he repeated (with five others) in 1684. The later years of his
life were spent mostly in London, where he continued to speak in public,
comparatively unmolested, until within a few days of his death, which
took place on the 13th of January 1691 (1690 O.S.).
William Penn has left on record an account of Fox from personal
knowledge--a _Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People
called Quakers_, written as a preface to Fox's _Journal_. Although a man
of large size and great bodily strength, he was "very temperate, eating
little and sleeping less." He was a man of strong personality, of
measured utterance, "civil" (says Penn) "beyond all forms of breeding."
From his _Journal_ we gather that he had piercing eyes and a very loud
voice, and wore good clothes. Unlike the Roundheads, he wore his hair
long. Even before his marriage with Margaret Fell he seems to have been
fairly well off; he does not appear to have worked for a living after he
was nineteen, and yet he had a horse, and speaks of having money to give
to those who were in need. He had much practical common-sense, and keen
sympathy for all who were in distress and for animals. The mere fact
that he was able to attract to himself so considerable a body of
respectable followers, including such men as Ellwood, Barclay, Penington
and Penn, is sufficient to prove that he possessed in a very eminent
degree the power of conviction, persuasion, and moral ascendancy; while
of his personal uprightness, single-mindedness and sincerity there can
be no question.
The writings of Fox are enumerated in Joseph Smith's _Catalogue of
Friends' Books_. The _Journal_ is especially interesting; of it Sir
James Mackintosh has said that "it is one of the most extraordinary
and instructive narratives in the world, which no reader of competent
judgment can peruse without revering the virtue of the writer." The
_Journal_ was originally published in London in 1694; the edition
known as the Bicentenary Edition, with notes biographical and
historical (reprint of 1901 or later), will be found the most useful
in practice. An exact transcript of the _Journal_ has been issued by
the Cambridge University Press. A _Life of George Fox_, by Dr Thomas
Hodgkin; _The Fells of Swarthmoor Hall_, by Maria Webb; and _The Life
and Character of George Fox_, by John Stephenson Rowntree, are
valuable. For a mention of other works, and for details of the
principles and history of the Society of Friends, together with some
further information about Fox, see the article FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF.
(A. N. B.)
FOX, RICHARD (c. 1448-1528), successively bishop of Exeter, Bath and
Wells, Durham, and Winchester, lord privy seal, and founder of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, was born about 1448 at Ropesley near Grantham,
Lincolnshire. His parents belonged to the yeoman class, and there is
some obscurity about Fox's early career. It is not known at what school
he was educated, nor at what college, though the presumption is in
favour of Magdalen, Oxford, whence he drew so many members of his
subsequent foundation, Corpus Christi. He also appears to have studied
at Cambridge, but nothing definite is known of the first thirty-five
years of his career. In 1484 he was in Paris, whether merely for the
sake of learning or because he had rendered himself obnoxious to Richard
III. is a matter of speculation. At any rate he was brought into contact
with the earl of Richmond, who was then beginning his quest for the
English throne, and was taken into his service. In January 1485 Richard
intervened to prevent Fox's appointment to the vicarage of Stepney on
the ground that he was keeping company with the "great rebel, Henry ap
Tuddor."
The important offices conferred on Fox immediately after the battle of
Bosworth imply that he had already seen more extensive political service
than can be traced in records. Doubtless Henry VII. had every reason to
reward his companions in exile, and to rule like Ferdinand of Aragon by
means of lawyers and churchmen rather than trust nobles like those who
had made the Wars of the Roses. But without an intimate knowledge of
Fox's political experience and capacity he would hardly have made him
his principal secretary, and soon afterwards lord privy seal and bishop
of Exeter (1487). The ecclesiastical preferment was merely intended to
provide a salary not at Henry's expense; for Fox never saw either Exeter
or the diocese of Bath and Wells to which he was translated in 1492. His
activity was confined to political and especially diplomatic channels;
so long as Morton lived, Fox was his subordinate, but after the
archbishop's death he was second to none in Henry's confidence, and he
had an important share in all the diplomatic work of the reign. In 1487
he negotiated a treaty with James III. of Scotland, in 1491 he baptized
the future Henry VIII., in 1492 he helped to conclude the treaty of
Etaples, and in 1497 he was chief commissioner in the negotiations for
the famous commercial agreement with the Netherlands which Bacon seems
to have been the first to call the _Magnus Intercursus_.
Meanwhile in 1494 Fox had been translated to Durham, not merely because
it was a richer see than Bath and Wells but because of its political
importance as a palatine earldom and its position with regard to the
Borders and relations with Scotland. For these reasons rather than from
any ecclesiastical scruples Fox visited and resided in his new diocese;
and he occupied Norham Castle, which he fortified and defended against a
Scottish raid in Perkin Warbeck's interests (1497). But his energies
were principally devoted to pacific purposes. In that same year he
negotiated Perkin's retirement from the court of James IV., and in
1498-1499 he completed the negotiations for that treaty of marriage
between the Scottish king and Henry's daughter Margaret which led
ultimately to the union of the two crowns in 1603 and of the two
kingdoms in 1707. The marriage itself did not take place until 1503,
just a century before the accession of James I.
This consummated Fox's work in the north, and in 1501 he was once more
translated to Winchester, then reputed the richest bishopric in England.
In that year he brought to a conclusion marriage negotiations not less
momentous in their ultimate results, when Prince Arthur was betrothed to
Catherine of Aragon. His last diplomatic achievement in the reign of
Henry VII. was the betrothal of the king's younger daughter Mary to the
future emperor Charles V. In 1500 he was elected chancellor of Cambridge
University, an office not confined to noble lords until a much more
democratic age, and in 1507 master of Pembroke Hall in the same
university. The Lady Margaret Beaufort made him one of her executors,
and in this capacity as well as in that of chancellor, he had the chief
share with Fisher in regulating the foundation of St John's College and
the Lady Margaret professorships and readerships. His financial work
brought him a less enviable notoriety, though a curious freak of history
has deprived him of the credit which is his due for "Morton's fork." The
invention of that ingenious dilemma for extorting contributions from
poor and rich alike is ascribed as a tradition to Morton by Bacon; but
the story is told in greater detail of Fox by Erasmus, who says he had
it from Sir Thomas More, a well-informed contemporary authority. It is
in keeping with the somewhat malicious saying about Fox reported by
Tyndale that he would sacrifice his father to save his king, which after
all is not so damning as Wolsey's dying words.
The accession of Henry VIII. made no immediate difference to Fox's
position. If anything, the substitution of the careless pleasure-loving
youth for Henry VII. increased the power of his ministry, the personnel
of which remained unaltered. The Venetian ambassador calls Fox "alter
rex" and the Spanish ambassador Carroz says that Henry VIII. trusted him
more than any other adviser, although he also reports Henry's warning
that the bishop of Winchester was, as his name implied, "a fox indeed."
He was the chief of the ecclesiastical statesmen who belonged to the
school of Morton, believed in frequent parliaments, and opposed the
spirited foreign policy which laymen like Surrey are supposed to have
advocated. His colleagues were Warham and Ruthal, but Warham and Fox
differed on the question of Henry's marriage. Fox advising the
completion of the match with Catherine while Warham expressed doubts as
to its canonical validity. They also differed over the prerogatives of
Canterbury with regard to probate and other questions of ecclesiastical
jurisdiction.
Wolsey's rapid rise in 1511 put an end to Fox's influence. The pacific
policy of the first two years of Henry VIII.'s reign was succeeded by an
adventurous foreign policy directed mainly against France; and Fox
complained that no one durst do anything in opposition to Wolsey's
wishes. Gradually Warham and Fox retired from the government; the
occasion of Fox's resignation of the privy seal was Wolsey's
ill-advised attempt to drive Francis I. out of Milan by financing an
expedition led by the emperor Maximilian in 1516. Tunstall protested,
Wolsey took Warham's place as chancellor, and Fox was succeeded by
Ruthal, who, said the Venetian ambassador, "sang treble to Wolsey's
bass." He bore Wolsey no ill-will, and warmly congratulated him two
years later when warlike adventures were abandoned at the peace of
London. But in 1522 when war was again declared he emphatically refused
to bear any part of the responsibility, and in 1523 he opposed in
convocation the financial demands which met with a more strenuous
resistance in the House of Commons.
He now devoted himself assiduously to his long-neglected episcopal
duties. He expressed himself as being as anxious for the reformation of
the clergy as Simeon for the coming of the Messiah; but while he
welcomed Wolsey's never-realized promises, he was too old to accomplish
much himself in the way of remedying the clerical and especially the
monastic depravity, licence and corruption he deplored. His sight failed
during the last ten years of his life, and there is no reason to doubt
Matthew Parker's story that Wolsey suggested his retirement from his
bishopric on a pension. Fox replied with some warmth, and Wolsey had to
wait until Fox's death before he could add Winchester to his
archbishopric of York and his abbey of St Albans, and thus leave Durham
vacant as he hoped for the illegitimate son on whom (aged 18) he had
already conferred a deanery, four archdeaconries, five prebends and a
chancellorship.
The crown of Fox's career was his foundation of Corpus Christi College,
which he established in 1515-1516. Originally he intended it as an
Oxford house for the monks of St Swithin's, Winchester; but he is said
to have been dissuaded by Bishop Oldham, who denounced the monks and
foretold their fall. The scheme adopted breathed the spirit of the
Renaissance; provision was made for the teaching of Greek, Erasmus
lauded the institution and Pole was one of its earliest fellows. The
humanist Vives was brought from Italy to teach Latin, and the reader in
theology was instructed to follow the Greek and Latin Fathers rather
than the scholastic commentaries. Fox also built and endowed schools at
Taunton and Grantham, and was a benefactor to numerous other
institutions. He died at Wolvesey on the 5th of October 1528; Corpus
possesses several portraits and other relics of its founder.
See _Letters and Papers of Henry VII. and Henry VIII._, vols. i.-iv.;
_Spanish and Venetian Calendars of State Papers_; Gairdner's _Lollardy
and the Reformation and Church History 1485-1558_; Pollard's _Henry
VIII._; Longman's Political History, vol. v.; other authorities cited
in the article by Dr T. Fowler (formerly president of Corpus) in the
_Dict. Nat. Biog._ (A. F. P.)
FOX, RORERT WERE (1789-1877), English geologist and natural philosopher,
was born at Falmouth on the 26th of April 1789. He was a member of the
Society of Friends, and was descended from members who had long settled
in Cornwall, although he was not related to George Fox who had
introduced the community into the county. He was distinguished for his
researches on the internal temperature of the earth, being the first to
prove that the heat increased definitely with the depth; his
observations being conducted in Cornish mines from 1815 for a period of
forty years. In 1829 he commenced a series of experiments on the
artificial production of miniature metalliferous veins by means of the
long-continued influence of electric currents, and his main results were
published in _Observations on Mineral Veins_ (_Rep. Royal Cornwall
Polytech. Soc._, 1836). He was one of the founders in 1833 of the Royal
Cornwall Polytechnic Society. He constructed in 1834 an improved form of
deflector dipping needle. In 1848 he was elected F.R.S. His garden at
Penjerrick near Falmouth became noted for the number of exotic plants
which he had naturalized. He died on the 25th of July 1877. (See _A
Catalogue of the Works of Robert Were Fox, F.R.S., with a Sketch of his
Life_, by J.H. Collins, 1878.)
His daughter, CAROLINE FOX (1819-1871), born at Falmouth on the 24th of
May 1819, is well known as the authoress of a diary, recording memories
of many distinguished people, such as John Stuart Mill, John Sterling
and Carlyle. Selections from her diary and correspondence (1835-1871)
were published under the title of _Memories of Old Friends_ (ed. by H.N.
Pym, 1881; 2nd ed., 1882). She died on the 12th of January 1871.
FOX, SIR STEPHEN (1627-1716), English statesman, born on the 27th of
March 1627, was the son of William Fox, of Farley, in Wiltshire, a
yeoman farmer. At the age of fifteen he first obtained a situation in
the household of the earl of Northumberland; then he entered the service
of Lord Percy, the earl's brother, and was present with the royalist
army at the battle of Worcester as Lord Percy's deputy at the ordnance
board. Accompanying Charles II. in his flight to the continent, he was
appointed manager of the royal household, on Clarendon's recommendation
as "a young man bred under the severe discipline of Lord Percy ... very
well qualified with languages, and all other parts of clerkship, honesty
and discretion." The skill with which he managed the exiguous finances
of the exiled court earned him further confidence and promotion. He was
employed on several important missions, and acted eventually as
intermediary between the king and General Monk. Honours and emolument
were his reward after the Restoration; he was appointed to the lucrative
offices of first clerk of the board of green cloth and paymaster-general
of the forces. In November 1661 he became member of parliament for
Salisbury. In 1665 he was knighted, was returned as M. P. for
Westminster on the 27th of February 1679, and succeeded the earl of
Rochester as a commissioner of the treasury, filling that office for
twenty-three years and during three reigns. In 1680 he resigned the
paymastership and was made first commissioner of horse. In 1684 he
became sole commissioner of horse. He was offered a peerage by James
II., on condition of turning Roman Catholic, but refused, in spite of
which he was allowed to retain his commissionerships. In 1685 he was
again M. P. for Salisbury, and opposed the bill for a standing army
supported by the king. During the Revolution he maintained an attitude
of decent reserve, but on James's flight, submitted to William III., who
confirmed him in his offices. He was again elected for Westminster in
1691 and 1695, for Cricklade in 1698, and finally in 1713 once more for
Salisbury. He died on the 28th of October 1716. It is his distinction to
have founded Chelsea hospital, and to have contributed £13,000 in aid of
this laudable public work. Though his place as a statesman is in the
second or even the third rank, yet he was a useful man in his
generation, and a public servant who creditably discharged all the
duties with which he was entrusted. Unlike other statesmen of his day,
he grew rich in the service of the nation without being suspected of
corruption, and without forfeiting the esteem of his contemporaries.
He was twice married (1651 and 1703); by his first wife, Elizabeth
Whittle, he had seven sons, who predeceased him, and three daughters; by
his second, Christian Hopes, he had two sons and two daughters. The
elder son by the second marriage, Stephen (1704-1776), was created Lord
Ilchester and Stavordale in 1747 and earl of Ilchester in 1756; in 1758
he took the additional name of Strangways, and his descendants, the
family of Fox-Strangways, still hold the earldom of Ilchester. The
younger son, Henry, became the 1st Lord Holland (q.v.).
FOX, SIR WILLIAM (1812-1893), New Zealand statesman, third son of George
Townshend Fox, deputy-lieutenant for Durham county, was born in England
on the 9th of June 1812, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where
he took his degree in 1832. Called to the bar in 1842, he emigrated
immediately thereafter to New Zealand, where, on the death of Captain
Arthur Wakefield, killed in 1843 in the Wairau massacre, he became the
New Zealand Company's agent for the South Island. While holding this
position he made a memorable exploring march on foot from Nelson to
Canterbury, through Cannibal Gorge, in the course of which he discovered
the fertile pastoral country of Amuri. In 1848 Governor Grey made Fox
attorney-general, but he gave up the post almost at once in order to
join the agitation, then at its height, for a free constitution. As the
political agent of the Wellington settlers he sailed to London in 1850
to urge their demands in Downing Street. The colonial office, however,
refused to recognize him, and, after publishing a sketch of the New
Zealand settlements, _The Six Colonies of New Zealand_, and travelling
in the United States, he returned to New Zealand and again threw himself
with energy into public affairs. When government by responsible
ministers was at last initiated, in 1856, Fox ousted the first ministry
and formed a cabinet, only to be himself beaten in turn after holding
office but thirteen days. In 1861 he regained office, and was somewhat
more fortunate, for he remained premier for nearly thirteen months.
Again, in the latter part of 1863 he took office: this time with Sir
Frederick Whitaker as premier, an arrangement which endured for another
thirteen months. Fox's third premiership began in 1869 and lasted until
1872. His fourth, which was a matter of temporary convenience to his
party, lasted only five weeks in March and April 1873. Soon afterwards
he left politics, and, though he reappeared after some years and led the
attack which overthrew Sir George Grey's ministry in 1879, he lost his
seat in the dissolution which followed in that year and did not again
enter parliament. He was made K.C.M.G. in 1880.
For the thirty years between 1850 and 1880 Sir William Fox was one of
the half-dozen most notable public men in the colony. Impulsive and
controversial, a fluent and rousing speaker, and a ready writer, his
warm and sympathetic nature made him a good friend and a troublesome
foe. He was considered for many years to be the most dangerous leader of
the Opposition in the colony's parliament, though as premier he was at a
disadvantage when measured against more patient and more astute party
managers. His activities were first devoted to secure self-government
for the New Zealand colonists. Afterwards his sympathies made him
prominent among the champions of the Maori race, and he laboured
indefatigably for their rights and to secure permanent peace with the
tribes and a just settlement of their claims. It was during his third
premiership that this peace, so long deferred, was at last gained,
mainly through the influence and skill of Sir Donald M'Lean, native
minister in the Fox cabinet. Finally, after Fox had left parliament he
devoted himself, as joint-commissioner with Sir Francis Dillon Bell, to
the adjustment of the native land-claims on the west coast of the North
Island. The able reports of the commissioners were his last public
service, and the carrying out of their recommendations gradually removed
the last serious native trouble in New Zealand. When, however, in the
course of the native wars from 1860 to 1870 the colonists of New Zealand
were exposed to cruel and unjust imputations in England, Fox zealously
defended them in a book, _The War in New Zealand_ (1866), which was not
only a spirited vindication of his fellow-settlers, but a scathing
criticism of the generalship of the officers commanding the imperial
troops in New Zealand. Throughout his life Fox was a consistent advocate
of total abstinence. It was he who founded the New Zealand Alliance, and
he undoubtedly aided the growth of the prohibition movement afterwards
so strong in the colony. He died on the 23rd of June 1893, exactly
twelve months after his wife, Sarah, daughter of William Halcombe.
(W. P. R.)
FOX, a name (female, "vixen"[1]) properly applicable to the single wild
British representative of the family _Canidae_ (see CARNIVORA), but in a
wider sense used to denote fox-like species from all parts of the world,
inclusive of many from South America which do not really belong to the
same group. The fox was included by Linnaeus in the same genus with the
dog and the wolf, under the name of _Canis vulpes_, but at the present
day is regarded by most naturalists as the type of a separate genus, and
should then be known as _Vulpes alopex_ or _Vulpes vulpes_. From dogs,
wolves, jackals, &c., which constitute the genus _Canis_ in its more
restricted sense, foxes are best distinguished by the circumstance that
in the skull the (postorbital) projection immediately behind the socket
for the eye has its upper surface concave, with a raised ridge in front,
in place of regularly convex. Another character is the absence of a
hollow chamber, or sinus, within the frontal bone of the forehead. Foxes
are likewise distinguished by their slighter build, longer and bushy
tail, which always exceeds half the length of the head and body, sharper
muzzle, and relatively longer body and shorter limbs. Then again, the
ears are large in proportion to the head, the pupil of the eye is
elliptical and vertical when in a strong light, and the female has six
pairs of teats, in place of the three to five pairs found in dogs,
wolves and jackals. From the North American grey foxes, constituting the
genus or subgenus _Urocyon_, the true foxes are distinguished by the
absence of a crest of erectile long hairs along the middle line of the
upper surface of the tail, and also of a projection (subangular process)
to the postero-inferior angle of the lower jaw. With the exception of
certain South African species, foxes differ from wolves and jackals in
that they do not associate in packs, but go about in pairs or are
solitary.
From the Scandinavian peninsula and the British Islands the range of the
fox extends eastwards across Europe and central and northern Asia to
Japan, while to the south it embraces northern Africa and Arabia,
Persia, Baluchistan, and the north-western districts of India and the
Himalaya. On the North American side of the Atlantic the fox reappears.
With such an enormous geographical range the species must of necessity
present itself under a considerable number of local phases, differing
from one another to a greater or less degree in the matters of size and
colouring. By some naturalists many of these local forms are regarded as
specifically distinct, but it seems better and simpler to class them all
as local phases or races of a single species primarily characterized by
the white tip to the tail and the black or dark-brown hind surface of
the ear. The "foxy red" colouring of the typical race of north-western
Europe is too well known to require description. From this there is a
more or less nearly complete gradation on the one hand to pale-coloured
forms like the white-footed fox (_V. alopex leucopus_) of Persia, N.W.
India and Arabia, and on the other to the silver or black fox (_V. a.
argentatus_) of North America which yields the valuable silver-tipped
black fur. Silver foxes apparently also occur in northern Asia.
To mention all the other local races would be superfluous, and it will
suffice to note that the North African fox is known as _V. a.
niloticus_, the Himalayan as _V. a. montanus_, the Tibetan as _V. a.
wadelli_, the North American red or cross fox as _V. a. pennsylvanicus_,
and the Alaskan as _V. a. harrimani_; the last named, like several other
animals from Alaska, being the largest of its kind.
The cunning and stratagem of the fox have been proverbial for many ages,
and he has figured as a central character in fables from the earliest
times, as in Aesop, down to "Uncle Remus," most notably as Reynard
(_Raginohardus_, strong in counsel) in the great medieval beast-epic
"Reynard the Fox" (q.v.). It is not unlikely that, owing to the
conditions under which it now lives, these traits are even more
developed in England than elsewhere. In habits the fox is to a great
extent solitary, and its home is usually a burrow, which may be
excavated by its own labour, but is more often the usurped or deserted
tenement of a badger or a rabbit. Foxes will, however, often take up
their residence in woods, or even in water-meadows with large tussocks
of grass, remaining concealed during the day and issuing forth on
marauding expeditions at night. Rabbits, hares, domesticated poultry,
game-birds, and, when these run short, rats, mice and even insects, form
the chief diet of the fox. When living near the coast foxes will,
however, visit the shore at low water in search of crabs and whelks; and
the old story of the fox and the grapes seems to be founded upon a
partiality on the part of the creature for that fruit. Flesh that has
become tainted appears to be specially acceptable; but it is a curious
fact that on no account will a fox eat any kind of bird of prey.
After a gestation of from 60 to 65 days, the vixen during the month of
April gives birth to cubs, of which from five to eight usually go to
form a litter. When first born these are clothed with a uniform
slaty-grey fur, which in due course gives place to a coat of more tawny
hue than the adult livery. In a year and a half the cubs attain their
full development; and from observations on captive specimens it appears
that the duration of life ought to extend to some thirteen or fourteen
years. In the care and defence of her young the vixen displays
extraordinary solicitude and boldness, altogether losing on such
occasions her accustomed timidity and caution. Like most other young
animals, fox-cubs are exceedingly playful, and may be seen chasing one
another in front of the mouth of the burrow, or even running after their
own tails.
Young foxes can be tamed to a certain extent, and do not then emit the
well-known odour to any great degree unless excited. The species cannot,
however, be completely domesticated, and never displays the affectionate
traits of the dog. It was long believed that foxes and dogs would never
interbreed; but several instances of such unions have been recorded,
although they are undoubtedly rare. When suddenly confronted in a
situation where immediate escape is impossible, the fox, like the wolf,
will not hesitate to resort to the death-feigning instinct. Smartness in
avoiding traps is one of the most distinctive traits in the character of
the species; but when a trap has once claimed its victim, and is
consequently no longer dangerous, the fox is always ready to take
advantage of the gratuitous meal.
Red fox-skins are largely imported into Europe for various purposes, the
American imports alone formerly reaching as many as 60,000 skins
annually. Silver fox is one of the most valuable of all furs, as much as
£480 having been given for an unusually fine pair of skins in 1902.
Of foxes certainly distinct specifically from the typical representative
of the group, one of the best known is the Indian _Vulpes bengalensis_,
a species much inferior in point of size to its European relative, and
lacking the strong odour of the latter, from which it is also
distinguished by the black tip to the tail and the pale-coloured backs
of the ears. The corsac fox (_V. corsac_), ranging from southern Russia
and the Caspian provinces across Asia to Amurland, may be regarded as a
northern representative of the Indian species; while the pale fox (_V.
pallidus_), of the Suakin and Dongola deserts, may be regarded as the
African representative of the group. Possibly the kit-fox (_V. velox_),
which has likewise a black tail-tip and pale ears, may be the North
American form of the same group. The northern fennec (_V. famelicus_),
whose range extends apparently from Egypt and Somaliland through
Palestine and Persia into Afghanistan, seems to form a connecting link
between the more typical foxes and the small African species properly
known as fennecs. The long and bushy tail in the northern species has a
white tip and a dark gland-patch near the root, but the backs of the
ears are fawn-coloured. The enormous length of the ears and the small
bodily size (inferior to that of any other member of the family) suffice
to distinguish the true fennec (_V. zerda_) of Algeria and Egypt, in
which the general colour is pale and the tip of the relatively short
tail black. South of the Zambezi the group reappears in the shape of the
asse-fox or fennec, (_V. cama_), a dark-coloured species, with a black
tip to the long, bushy tail and reddish-brown ears.
Passing from South Africa to the north polar regions of both the Old and
the New World, inclusive of Iceland, we enter the domain of the Arctic
fox (_V. lagopus_), a very distinct species characterized by the hairy
soles of its feet, the short, blunt ears, the long, bushy tail, and the
great length of the fur in winter. The upper parts in summer are usually
brownish and the under parts white; but in winter the whole coat, in
this phase of the species, turns white. In a second phase of the
species, the colour, which often displays a slaty hue (whence the name
of blue fox), remains more or less the same throughout the year, the
winter coat being, however, recognizable by the great length of the fur.
Many at least of the "blue fox" skins of the fur-trade are white skins
dyed. About 2000 blue fox-skins were annually imported into London from
Alaska some five-and-twenty years ago. Arctic foxes feed largely on
sea-birds and lemmings, laying up hidden stores of the last-named
rodents for winter use.
The American grey fox, or Virginian fox, is now generally ranged as a
distinct genus (or a subgenus of _Canis_) under the name of _Urocyon
cinereo-argentatus_, on account of being distinguished, as already
mentioned, by the presence of a ridge of long erectile hairs along the
upper surface of the tail and of a projection to the postero-inferior
angle of the lower jaw. The prevailing colour of the fur of the upper
parts is iron-grey.
The so-called foxes of South America, such as the crab-eating fox (_C.
thous_), Azara's fox (_C. azarae_), and the colpeo (_C. magellanicus_),
are aberrant members of the typical genus _Canis_. On the other hand,
the long-eared fox or Delalande's fox (_Otocyon megalotis_) of south and
east Africa represents a totally distinct genus.
See St George Mivart, _Dogs, Jackals, Wolves and Foxes_ (London,
1890); R.I. Pocock, "Ancestors and Relatives of the Dog," in _The
Kennel Encyclopaedia_ (London, 1907). For fox-hunting, see HUNTING.
(R. L.*)