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LAKE DISTRICT, a district in c.u.mberland and Westmorland, 20 m. long by 25 m. broad, abounding in lakes, environed with scenery of rare beauty, and much frequented by tourists.
LAKE DWELLINGS, primitive settlements, the remains of which have been found in many parts of Europe, but chiefly in Switzerland, the N. of Italy, and in Scotland and Ireland. They were constructed in various ways. In the Swiss lakes piles, consisting of unbarked tree trunks, were driven in a short distance from the sh.o.r.e, and strengthened more or less by cross beams; extensive platforms laid on these held small villages of rectangular wooden huts, thatched with straw and reeds. These were sometimes approachable only in canoes, more often connected with the sh.o.r.e by a narrow bridge, in which case cattle were kept in sheds on the platforms. In Scotland and Ireland the erection was rather an artificial island laid down in 10 or 12 ft. of water with brushwood, logs, and stones, much smaller in size, and holding but one hut. The Swiss dwellings, the chief of which are at Meilen, on Lake Zurich, date from very early times, some say 2000 years before Christ, and contain remains of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, weapons, instruments, pottery, linen cloth, and the like. The relic of latest date is a Roman coin of A.D.
54. The British remains are much more recent, belonging entirely to the Iron period and to historic times. The object sought in these structures is somewhat obscure--most probably it was the security their insular nature afforded.
LAKE POETS, a school of English poets, the chief representatives of which were Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who adorned the beginning of the 19th century, and were so designated by the _Edinburgh Review_ because their favourite haunt was the LAKE DISTRICT (q. v.) in the N. of England, and the characteristic of whose poetry may be summed as a feeling of and a sympathy with the pure spirit of nature.
LAKSHMI, in the Hindu mythology the wife of Vishnu and the G.o.ddess of beauty, pleasure, and victory; she is a favourite subject of Hindu painting and poetry.
LALANDE, a French astronomer; was professor of Astronomy in the College of France, and produced an excellent treatise on the subject in two vols. (1732-1807).
LALLA-ROOKH, the t.i.tle of a poem by Moore, from the name of the heroine, the daughter of the Mogul Emperor, Aurungzebe; betrothed to the young king of Bacharia, she goes forth to meet him, but her heart having been smitten by a poet she meets on the way, as she enters the palace of her bridegroom she swoons away, but reviving at the sound of a familiar voice she wakes up with rapture to find that the poet of her affection was none other than the prince to whom she was betrothed.
LALLY-TOLLENDAL, or BARON DE TOLLENDAL, a French general, born at Romans, in Dauphine, of Irish descent; saw service in Flanders; accompanied Prince Charles to Scotland in 1745, and was in 1756 appointed Governor-General of the French settlements in India, but being defeated by the English he was accused of having betrayed the French interests, and executed after two years' imprisonment in the Bastille (1702-1766).
LALLY-TOLLENDAL, MARQUIS DE, son of the preceding; successfully vindicated the conduct of his father, and received back his paternal estates that had unjustly been forfeited; supported LA FAYETTE (q. v.) at the time of the Revolution, and followed his example; was arrested in 1792, but escaped to England; returning to France, he supported the Bourbon dynasty at the Restoration; wrote a ”Defence of the French Emigrants,” and a Life of the Earl of Strafford, Charles I.'s minister (1751-1830).
LAMAISM, Buddhism as professed in Thibet and Mongolia, or the wors.h.i.+p of Buddha and his DHARMA (q. v.); conceived of as incarnated in the SANGHA (q. v.) or priesthood, and especially in the Grand Lama or Dalai Lama, the chief priest; a kind of hero-wors.h.i.+p, or at all events saint-wors.h.i.+p; long since sunk into mere IDOLATRY (q. v.).
LAMARCK, a French naturalist, born at Bazentin, Picardy; entered the army at the age of 17, and after serving in it a short time retired and devoted himself to botany; in his ”Flora Francaise” published (1773) adopted a new method of cla.s.sification of plants; in 1774 became keeper of what ultimately became the Jardin des Plantes, and was professor of Zoology, devoting himself to the study of particularly invertebrate animals, the fruits of which study appeared in his ”Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres”; he held very advanced views on the matter of biology, and it was not till the advent of Darwin they were appreciated (1744-1820).
LA MARMORA, MARQUIS DE, an eminent Italian general and statesman, born at Turin; fell under the rebuke of Bismarck for an indiscretion as a diplomatist (1801-1878).
LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE MARIE DE, a French author, politician, and poet, born in Macon; his poetic effusions procured for him admission into the French Academy, and in 1834 he entered the Chamber of Deputies; his ability as a poet, and the independent att.i.tude he maintained in the Chamber, gained for him a popularity which his action in 1848 contributed to increase, but it suffered eclipse from the moment he allied himself with Ledru-Rollin; after serving in the Provisional Government of 1848 he stood candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated, and on the occasion of the _coup d'etat_, he retired into private life; he published in 1819 ”Meditations Poetiques,” in 1847 the ”Histoire de Girondins,” besides other works, including ”Voyage en Orient”; he was ”of the second order of poets,” says Professor Saintsbury, ”sweet but not strong, elegant but not full;... a sentimentalist and a landscape painter” (1790-1869).
LAMB, CHARLES, essayist and critic, born in London, and educated at Christ's Hospital, where he had Coleridge for school-fellow; was for 35 years a clerk in the East India Company's office, on his retirement from which he was allowed a pension of 450; it was as a poet he made his first appearance in literature, but it was as an essayist he attained distinction, and chiefly by his ”Essays of Elia” he is best known and will be longest remembered; he was the friend of Wordsworth, Southey, and others of his ill.u.s.trious contemporaries, and is famous for his witty remarks, to which his stammering tongue imparted a special zest; he was never married; his affection for his sister Mary, for whom he composed his ”Tales from Shakespeare,” is well known, and how in her weakness from insanity he tenderly nursed her (1775-1834).
LAMBALLE, PRINCESSE DE, a young widow, the devoted friend of Marie Antoinette, born at Turin; was for her devotion to the queen one of the victims of the September ma.s.sacres and brutally outraged; ”she was beautiful, she was good, she had known no happiness” (1748-1792).
LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH, German philosopher and mathematician; was the successor and rival of Leibnitz in both regards, and was patronised by Frederick the Great (1619-1728).
LAMBERT, JOHN, one of Cromwell's officers in the civil war, born in Yorks.h.i.+re; served in the successive engagements during the war from that of Marston Moor onwards, and a.s.sisted at the installation of Cromwell as Protector, but declined to take the oath of allegiance afterwards; on the death of the Protector essayed with other officers to govern the country, an attempt which was defeated by Monk, and for which he was imprisoned, tried, and banished (1619-1683).
LAMBETH (275), part of the SW. quarter of London, and a parliamentary borough in Surrey returning four members; abounds in manufactories, contains St. Thomas's Hospital and Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a magnificent library and important historic portrait-gallery.