The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 279

LANDES, sandy plains along the French coast between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, covered with heath and broom.

LANDGRABBER, name given in Ireland to one in the possession or occupancy of land from which another has been evicted.

LANDGRAVE, t.i.tle given to certain counts of the old German empire who had the rank of princes.

LANDON, LEt.i.tIA ELIZABETH, known as L. E. L., auth.o.r.ess, born in Chelsea; a charming woman, who wrote well both in verse and prose; was Mrs. Hemans's successor; having taken prussic acid by mistake had a tragic end (1802-1838).

LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE, eminent literary man, born in Warwick, a man of excitable temperament, which involved him in endless quarrels leading to alienations, but did not affect his literary work; figured first as a poet in "Gebir" and "Count Julian," to the admiration of Southey, his friend, and De Quincey, and ere long as a writer of prose in his "Imaginary Conversations," embracing six volumes, on which recent critics have bestowed unbounded praise, Swinburne in particular; he died in Florence separated from his family, and dependent on it there for six years; Carlyle visited him at Bath in 1850, and found him "stirring company; a proud, irascible, trenchant, yet generous, veracious, and very dignified old man; quite a ducal or royal man in the temper of him"

(1775-1864).

LAND'S END, a bold promontory of granite rock on the SW. coast of Cornwall.

LANDSEER, SIR EDWIN HENRY, greatest English animal-painter, born in London, the son of an engraver and writer on art, trained by his father, sketched animals before he was six years old, and exhibited in the Royal Academy before thirteen; in his early years he portrayed simply the form and colour and movement of animal life, but after his twenty-first year he added usually some sentiment or idea; elected A.R.A. in 1826, and R.A.

in 1830; he was knighted in 1853; five years later he won a gold medal in Paris; in 1859 he modelled the Trafalgar Square lions; after 1861 he suffered from mental depression, and declined the Presidency of the Royal Academy in 1866 (1802-1873).

LANDSTURM, the name given to the last reserve in the German army, which is never called out except in time of war.

LANDTHING, the name of the Upper House in the Danish Parliament.

LANDWEHR, a military force in Germany and Austria held in reserve against a time of war, when it is called out to do ordinary military duty. In Germany those capable of bearing arms have to serve in it five years after completing their seven years' term of regular service.

LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM, eminent Arabic scholar, born at Hereford; set out for Egypt in 1825; studied the language and manners, and returned in 1828; published in 1836 an "Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians"; translated in 1840 "The Arabian Nights," and spent seven years in Egypt preparing an Arabic Lexicon which he had all but finished when he died; it was completed and edited by S. Lane-Poole (1801-1876).

LANFRANC, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Pavia; went to France, entered the monastery of Bec, and became prior in 1046, and was afterwards, in 1062, elected prior of the abbey of St. Stephen at Caen; and came over to England with William the Conqueror, who appointed him to the archbishopric rendered vacant by the deposition of Stigand; he was William's trusted adviser, but his influence declined under Rufus; _d_.

1089.

LANFREY, PIERRE, historian, born at Chambery; wrote an elaborate History of Napoleon to, it is reckoned, the irreparable damage of its hero (1828-1877).

LANG, ANDREW, a versatile writer, born in Selkirk; has distinguished himself in various departments of literary work, as a poet, a folk-lorist, a writer of fancy tales, a biographer, and a critic; has composed "Ballads and Lyrics of Old France," "Ballads in Blue China"; has translated Homer into musical prose, and written the Lives of Sir Stafford Northcote and John Gibson Lockhart; he began his literary career as a journalist, and his a.s.siduity as a writer has never relaxed; _b_.

1844.

LANGE, FRIEDRICH, German philosopher, born near Solingen, son of the following; became professor at Marburg; wrote a "History of Materialism"

of great value (1828-1875).

LANGE, JOHANN PETER, a German theologian, born near Elberfeld; became professor at Bonn; his works are numerous, but is best known by his "Life of Christ" and his "Christian Dogmatic" (1802-1884).

LANGHORNE, JOHN, an English divine and poet, horn at Kirkby Stephen; was a prebend of Wells Cathedral; wrote a poem ent.i.tled "Genius and Virtue," and executed with a brother a translation of Plutarch's Lives (1735-1779).

LANGLAND, or LANGLEY, WILLIAM, the presumed author of the "Vision of Piers Plowman," and who lived in the 14th century.

LANGRES (10), a French town, strongly fortified, near the sources of the Marne, rich in antiquities, and one of the oldest towns in France; has manufactures and a considerable trade.

LANGTON, STEPHEN, archbishop of Canterbury, born in England but educated in France; a man of ability and scholarly attainments; in 1206 visited Rome, was made Cardinal by Innocent III., presented to the Archbishopric, and consecrated at Viterbo in 1207; King John refused to acknowledge him, and the kingdom was put under an interdict, a quarrel which it took five years to settle; established in the primacy, the prelate took up a const.i.tutional position, and mediated between the king and the barons to the advancement of political liberty; _d_. 1228.

LANGUEDOC, a province in the S. of France, annexed to the French crown in 1361, and now divided into nine departments, borders on the Rhone.

LANKA, name given to Ceylon in the Hindu mythology.

LANNES, JEAN, DUC DE MONTEBELLO, marshal of France, born at Lectoure; was much esteemed by Napoleon, whom he zealously supported; went with him to Egypt, was with him at Marengo, distinguished himself at Austerlitz and in Spain, and fell mortally wounded at Essling (1769-1809).

LANSDOWNE, HENRY, THIRD MARQUIS OF, liberal politician, born in London; educated at Edinburgh and Cambridge; sat in the Commons as member for Calne from 1801 and for Cambridge from 1806, and succeeded to the peerage in 1809; on the accession of the Liberals to power he joined the Cabinet of Canning, presided at the Foreign Office in G.o.derich's administration, became President of the Council under Lord Grey in 1830, and, twice refusing the Premiers.h.i.+p, was a member of every Liberal Government till 1858, when he retired from public life; he was the trusted adviser of his party, and friend of the Queen till his death (1780-1863).

LANSDOWNE, HENRY, FIFTH MARQUIS OF, Liberal statesman, grandson of the above, educated at Oxford; succeeded to the peerage in 1866, and held office in Liberal Governments, Lord of the Treasury 1868-72, Under-Secretary for War 1872-74, and Under-Secretary for India 1880; he was Governor-General of Canada 1883-88, and Viceroy of India 1888-94; in 1895 he joined Lord Salisbury's ministry as a Liberal-Unionist, becoming Secretary for War; _b_. 1845.

LANTERNE, LA, a stout lamp-iron at the corner of a street in Paris, used by the mob for extemporised executions during the Revolution by Lynch law.

LAOc.o.o.n, a priest of Apollo, in Troy, who having offended the G.o.d by, for one thing, advising the Trojans not to admit the wooden horse of the Greeks within the walls, was, with his two sons, while engaged in sacrificing to Poseidon, strangled to death in the coils of two enormous serpents sent to kill him, a subject which is the theme of one of the grandest relics of ancient sculpture now in existence and preserved in the Vatican.

LAODAMIA, a Grecian lady, who accompanied her husband to the Trojan War, and who, on his death on the field, begged the G.o.ds to restore him to her for three hours, a prayer which was granted, but with the result that at the end of the time she died along with him and accompanied him on his return to Hades.

LAODICEA. Eight ancient cities bore this name; the chief, situated on the Lycus, in Phrygia, lay on the way between Ionia and the Euphrates; was a city of great commerce and wealth, the seat of schools of art, science, medicine, and philosophy, and of an early Christian bishopric; though the Church was stigmatised in the Revelation, two councils a.s.sembled here in A.D. 363 and 476, the former of which influenced the determination of the canon of both Testaments; the city, destroyed by the Mohammedan invasions, is now in ruins.

LAOMEDON, the founder of Troy, who persuaded Apollo and Neptune to a.s.sist him in building the walls, but refused the recompense when the work was finished, in consequence of which the latter sent a monster to ravage the country, which could be propitiated only by the annual sacrifice to it of a young maid, till one year the lot fell on Hermione, the king's daughter, when Hercules, persuaded by the king, slew the monster and delivered the maiden.

LAOTZE (i. e. the old Philosopher), a Chinese sage, born in the province of Ho-nan about 565 B.C., a contemporary of Confucius, who wrote the celebrated "Tao-te-King," canon, that is, of the Tao, or divine reason, and of virtue, one--and deservedly so on account of its high ethics--of the sacred books of China; he was the founder of one of the three princ.i.p.al religions of China, Confucianism and Buddhism being the other two, although his followers, the Tao-sze as they are called, are now degenerated into a set of jugglers.

LA PeROUSE, a celebrated French navigator, born near Albi, in Languedoc; after distinguished services in the navy was in 1785 sent with two frigates on a voyage of discovery by Louis XVI.; "the brave navigator" went forth, sailing along the Pacific sh.o.r.es of America and Asia as far as Botany Bay, but never returned; "the seekers search far seas for him in vain; he has vanished trackless into blue immensity, and only some mournful mysterious shadow of him hovers long in all heads and hearts" (1741-1788).