FLAVEL, JOHN, an English Nonconformist divine of spiritualising tendencies, much read by pious people of his class; d. 1691.

FLAXMAN, JOHN, an eminent sculptor, born at York; was brought up in London, where his father carried on business as a moulder of plaster figures; his love of drawing and modelling soon marked him out as an artist, and helped by friends he devoted himself to art; exhibited at the age of 12, and won the silver medal of the Royal Academy at 14; for some years he supplied the Wedgwoods with designs for their famous pottery, and in 1787 he went to Rome, which for seven years became his home; in 1810 became professor of Sculpture to the Royal Academy; besides many fine statues of eminent men and much exquisite work in bas-reliefs, he executed a series of noble designs illustrating Homer, Dante, and AEschylus; he was a Swedenborgian by religious creed (1755-1826).

FLECHIER, a famous French pulpit orator, bishop of Nimes; his funeral orations compare with Bossuet’s (1632-1710).

FLEET MARRIAGES, clandestine marriages, suppressed in 1754, performed without license by the chaplains of Fleet Prison, London.

FLEET PRISON, a celebrated London jail in Farringdon Street; was a debtor’s prison as far back as the 12th century.

FLEETWOOD, CHARLES, a Cromwellian officer; fought as lieutenant-general against the king at Worcester, and acted as lord-deputy in Ireland; on the death of Cromwell advised the abdication of Richard; d. 1692.

FLEGEL, African explorer, born in Wilna, of German descent; made three journeys from Europe to explore the Niger territory, in which he made important discoveries; was suddenly stricken down in the last (1855-1886).

FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT, Orientalist, born at Schandau, Saxony; after a university training at Leipzig he undertook a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. in the royal library at Dresden, and in 1836 became professor of Oriental Languages at Leipzig; did important work as a critical editor of Oriental works and MSS. (1801-1888).

FLEMING, PAUL, a celebrated German poet, born at Hartenstein, Vogtland; received a medical training at Leipzig, and was engaged in embassies in Russia and Persia; settled in Hamburg in 1639, but died the following year; as a lyrist he stood in the front rank of German poets (1609-1640).

FLEMISH SCHOOL, a school of painting established in the 15th century, and to which Reubens, Vandyck, and Teniers belonged.

FLESHLY SCHOOL, a name given by Robert Buchanan to a realistic school of poets, to which Rossetti, William Morris, and Swinburne belong.

FLESSELLES, the last provost of the merchants of the Hotel de Ville, Paris; “shot by an unknown hand at the turn of a street” after the fall of the Bastille (1721-1789).