FORDUN, JOHN OF, a Scottish chronicler; lived in the 14th century; was a canon of Aberdeen Cathedral, and wrote a chronicle of Scottish history, bringing the story up to 1153; materials for further volumes, which he left, were utilised by Walter Bower, an abbot of Inchcolm, in the Forth, who extended the account to 1437, but often tampered with Fordun’s narrative; the work is the chief authority in Scottish history up to the time it treats of.

FORELAND, NORTH AND SOUTH, two rocky promontories on the E. coast of Kent, which lie 16 m. apart; have the Downs and Goodwin Sands between them; they are well marked with lighthouses.

FORENSIC MEDICINE, or MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, a branch of legal science in which the principles of medicine are applied to the purposes of the law, and originating out of the frequency with which medical points arise in the administration of justice, e. g. in murder trials and in cases where insanity is involved.

FOREST LAWS, laws enacted in ancient times for the purpose of guarding the royal forest lands as hunting preserves, and which were up to the time of Henry III. of excessive harshness, death being a not infrequent penalty for infringement.  The privileges of forest (at one time the sole prerogative of the sovereign, but by him capable of being vested in another), which might include the right to the wild animals in the forests lying in the domains of a private estate, have now fallen into abeyance, as also the special Forest Courts, while many of the royal forests, which in Henry VIII.’s time numbered 69, have been disafforested.

FORFAR (13), the county town of Forfarshire, 14 m.  NE. of Dundee; manufactures linen; was once an important royal residence, and was made a royal burgh by David I.

FORFARSHIRE or ANGUS (278), a maritime county on the E. side of Scotland, lying N. of the Firth of Tay; Strathmore and the Carse of Gowrie are fertile valleys, where agriculture and cattle-rearing flourish, and which, with the Braes of Angus in the N. and the Sidlaw Hills to the S., make up a finely diversified county; jute and linen are the most important articles of manufacture, of which Dundee and Arbroath are centres; Forfarshire is a county particularly rich in antiquities—­Roman remains, castles, priories, &c.

FORMOSA (3,500), a large island off the coast of China, from which it is separated by the Fukien Channel, 90 m. broad.  Formosa was ceded to Japan by the Chinese in 1895; it is an island of much natural beauty, and is traversed N. and S. by a fine range of hills; is famed for its bamboos, and exports coal, rice, tea, &c.  Name also of a large territory in the Argentine.

FORNARINA, a Roman lady of great beauty, a friend of Raphael’s, and who frequently posed as a model to him.

FORRES (3), a royal burgh in Elginshire, on the Findhorn, 2 m. from the sea and 10 m.  SW. of Elgin by railway; has ruins of a castle—­once a royal residence—­and a famous “Stan’in Stane,” Sueno’s Stone, 25 ft. high, placed in the year 900.