Four Hundred. The Select or “Smart” Society of New York city.
Fourteen Hundred. The cry raised when a stranger is discovered in the Stock Exchange, whereupon he is immediately hustled out. This had its origin in the circumstance that for a great many years the recognised full membership on ’Change was 1399.
Fourth Estate. The Press. Edward Burke referred to the Reporters’ Gallery as more powerful than the three great estates of the realm--viz. the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons.
Fox in the Hole. An inn or tavern sign contiguous to the hunting field.
Frame House. The American term for a house built of timber. Chinatown, or the Chinese quarter of the city of San Francisco, was entirely constructed of “frame houses.”
Franc. A silver coin of Franconia or France.
France. Anciently Franconia, the country of the Franks, so called from the franca, a kind of javelin with which they armed themselves when this people effected the conquest of Gaul.
Franciscans. Friars of the Order of St Francis of Assisi. Originally the Grey Friars, their habits are now brown. One of the rules laid down by their pious founder was that the brethren should always be clad like the poorest of the poor. He selected the loose sack of grey, undyed wool, bound round the waist by a cord of the Umbrian Shepherds. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the better classes affected gaudy colours, and the poorer orders, imitating them so far as the use of dyed materials was concerned, took to wearing garments of sober brown. Hence the change in the colour of the Franciscan habit.
Frankincense. Incense brought to the East from “Franconia.”
Freak Dinner. A latter-day term, arising out of the examples set by American millionaires to outdo all previous attempts in the way of sumptuous banquets. There have been dinners costing £100 per head. To please the eye, champagne has been made to flow wastefully from a fountain. The name is, however, more correctly applied to the scenic embellishments, as when the banqueting-chamber of the Gaiety Restaurant was converted into a South African mining tent, and real Kaffirs were the waiters, to remind the diners of the mode by which they had acquired their wealth.