FALKLAND (2), a royal burgh in Fifeshire, 10 m.  SW. of Cupar; has ruins of a famous palace, a royal residence of the Stuart sovereigns, which was restored by the Marquis of Bute in 1888.

FALKLAND, LUCIUS GARY, VISCOUNT, soldier, scholar, and statesman, son of Sir Henry Cary, Viscount Falkland; was lord-deputy of Ireland under James I.; entered the service of the new Dutch Republic, but soon returned to England and settled at Tew, Oxfordshire, where he indulged his studious tastes, and entertained his scholarly friends Clarendon, Chillingworth, and others; after joining Essex’s expedition into Scotland he sat in Parliament, and in 1642 became Secretary of State; suspicious of Charles’s weakness and duplicity, he as much distrusted the Parliamentary movement, and fell at Newbury fighting for the king (1610-1643).

FALKLAND ISLANDS (2), a group of islands in the S. Atlantic, 240 m.  E. of Tierra del Fuego; discovered in 1592 by Davis; purchased from the French in 1764 by Spain, but afterwards ceded to Britain, by whom they were occupied in 1833 and used as a convict settlement until 1852; besides E. and W. Falkland there are upwards of 100 small islands, mostly barren; wheat and flax are raised, but sheep-farming is the main industry.

FALL, THE, the first transgression of divine law on the part of man, conceived of as involving the whole human race in the guilt of it, and represented as consisting in the wilful partaking of the fruit of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of both good and evil.  The story of the Fall in Genesis has in later times been regarded as a spiritual allegory, and simply the Hebrew attempt, one amongst many, to explain the origin of evil.  It is worthy of note that a narrative, similar even to detail, exists in the ancient religious writings of the Hindus and Persians.

FALLOPIUS, GABRIELLO, anatomist, born at Modena; professor of Anatomy at Pisa and at Padua; the Fallopian tubes which connect the ovaries with the uterus, first accurately described by him, are called after his name, as also the duct which transmits the facial nerve after it leaves the auditory nerve (1523-1562).

FALLOUX, FREDERIC ALFRED PIERRE, VICOMTE DE, author and statesman, born at Angers; member of the House of Deputies; favoured the revolutionaries of 1848, and under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon became Minister of Public Instruction; retired in 1849, and became a member of the French Academy (1857); author of a “History of Louis XVI.” and a “History of Pius V.,” both characterised by a strong Legitimist bias (1811-1886).

FALMOUTH (13), a seaport on the Cornish coast, on the estuary of the Fal, 18 m.  NE. of the Lizard; its harbour, one of the finest in England, is defended E. and W. by St. Mawes Castle and Pendennis Castle; pilchard fishing is actively engaged in, and there are exports of tin and copper.

FALSTAFF, SIR JOHN, a character in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” and the “Merry Wives of Windsor”; a boon companion of Henry, Prince of Wales; a cowardly braggart, of sensual habits and great corpulency.  See FASTOLF.