portrait of Rembrandt by himself. Daniel Defoe considered its park the glory of the kingdom. The mansion sustained serious damage from fire in 1763. Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, was concerned in the killing of Cardinal Beaton (1546), and the dagger with which John Leslie, Norman’s uncle, struck the fatal blow is preserved in Leslie House.
Markinch (pop. 1499), a police burgh situated between Conland Burn and the Leven, 714 m. N. by E. of Kirkcaldy by the North British railway, is a place of great antiquity. A cell of the Culdees was established here by one of the last of the Celtic bishops, the site of which may possibly be marked by the ancient cross of Balgonie. Markinch is also believed to have been a residence of the earlier kings, where prior to the 11th century they occasionally administered justice; and in the reign of William the Lion (d. 1214) the warrantors of goods alleged to have been stolen were required to appear here. Its industries comprise bleaching, flax-spinning, paper-making, distilling and coal-mining. Balgonie Castle, close by, the keep of which is 80 ft. high, was a residence of Alexander Leslie, the first earl of Leven, and at Balfour Castle were born Cardinal Beaton and his uncle and nephew the archbishops of Glasgow.
LESPINASSE, JEANNE JULIE ÉLÉONORE DE (1732–1776),
French author, was born at Lyons on the 9th of November 1732.
A natural child of the comtesse d’Albon, she was brought up as
the daughter of Claude Lespinasse of Lyons. On leaving her
convent school she became governess in the house of her mother’s
legitimate daughter, Mme de Vichy, who had married the brother
of the marquise du Deffand. Here Mme du Deffand made her
acquaintance, and, recognizing her extraordinary gifts, persuaded
her to come to Paris as her companion. The alliance
lasted ten years (1754–1764) until Mme du Deffand became
jealous of the younger woman’s increasing influence, when a
violent quarrel ensued. Mlle de Lespinasse set up a salon of her
own which was joined by many of the most brilliant members of
Mme du Deffand’s circle. D’Alembert was one of the most
assiduous of her friends and eventually came to live under the
same roof. There was no scandal attached to this arrangement,
which ensured d’Alembert’s comfort and lent influence to Mlle
de Lespinasse’s salon. Although she had neither beauty nor
rank, her ability as a hostess made her reunions the most popular
in Paris. She owes her distinction, however, not to her social
success, but to circumstances which remained a secret during her
lifetime from her closest friends. Two volumes of Lettres published
in 1809 displayed her as the victim of a passion of a rare
intensity. In virtue of this ardent, intense quality Sainte Beuve
and other of her critics place her letters in the limited category
to which belong the Latin letters of Héloïse and those of the
Portuguese Nun. Her first passion, a reasonable and serious one,
was for the marquis de Mora, son of the Spanish ambassador
in Paris. De Mora had come to Paris in 1765, and with some
intervals remained there until 1772 when he was ordered to Spain
for his health. On the way to Paris in 1774 to fulfil promises
exchanged with Mlle de Lespinasse, he died at Bordeaux. But
her letters to the comte de Guibert, the worthless object of her
fatal infatuation, begin from 1773. From the struggle between
her affection for de Mora and her blind passion for her new lover
they go on to describe her partial disenchantment on Guibert’s
marriage and her final despair. Mlle de Lespinasse died on the
23rd of May 1776, her death being apparently hastened by the
agitation and misery to which she had been for the last three
years of her life a prey. In addition to the Lettres she was the
author of two chapters intended as a kind of sequel to Sterne’s
Sentimental Journey.
Her Lettres . . . were published by Mme de Guibert in 1809 and a spurious additional collection appeared in 1820. Among modern editions may be mentioned that of Eugène Asse (1876–1877). Lettres inédites de Mademoiselle de Lespinasse à Condorcet, à D’Alembert, à Guibert, au comte de Crillon, edited by M. Charles Henry (1887), contains copies of the documents available for her biography. Mrs Humphry Ward’s novel, Lady Rose’s Daughter, owes something to the character of Mlle de Lespinasse.
LES SABLES D’OLONNE, a seaport of western France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Vendée, on an inlet of the Atlantic seaboard, 23 m. S.W. of La Roche-sur-Yon by rail. Pop. (1906) 11,847. The town stands between the sea on the south and the port on the north, while on the west it is separated by a channel from the suburb of La Chaume, built at the foot of a range of dunes 65 ft. high, which terminates southwards in the rocky peninsula of L’Aiguille. The beautiful smoothly sloping beach, 1 m. in length, is much frequented by bathers. To the north of Sables extend salt-marshes and oyster-parks, yielding 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 oysters per annum. Sables has a church built in the Late Gothic style towards the middle of the 17th century. The port, consisting of a tidal basin and a wet-dock, is accessible to vessels of 2000 tons, but is dangerous when the winds are from the south-west. The lighthouse of Barges, a mile out at sea to the west, is visible for 17 to 18 nautical miles. The inhabitants are employed largely in sardine and tunny fishing; there are imports of coal, wood, petroleum and phosphates. Boat-building and sardine-preserving are carried on. The town has a sub-prefecture and a tribunal of first instance.
Founded by Basque or Spanish sailors, Sables was the first place in Poitou invaded by the Normans in 817. Louis XI., who went there in 1472, granted the inhabitants various privileges, improved the harbour, and fortified the entrance. Captured and recaptured during the Wars of Religion, the town afterwards became a nursery of hardy sailors and privateers, who harassed the Spaniards and afterwards the English. In 1696 Sables was bombarded by the combined fleets of England and Holland. In the middle of the 18th century hurricanes caused grievous damage to town and harbour.
LES SAINTES-MARIES, a coast village of south-eastern France
in the department of Boûches-du-Rhône, 24 m. S.S.W. of Arles
by rail. Pop. (1906) 544. Saintes-Maries is situated in the plain
of the Camargue, 112 m. E. of the mouth of the Petit-Rhône. It
is the object of an ancient and famous pilgrimage due to the
tradition that Mary, sister of the Virgin, and Mary, mother of
James and John, together with their black servant Sara, Lazarus,
Martha, Mary Magdalen and St Maximin fled thither to escape
persecution in Judaea. The relics of the two Maries, who are
said to have been buried at Saintes-Maries, are bestowed in the
upper storey of the apse of the fortress-church, a remarkable
building of the 12th century with crenelated and machicolated
walls. Two festivals are held in the town, a less important one
in October, the other, on the 24th and 25th of May, unique for
its gathering of gipsies who come in large numbers to do honour
to the tomb of their patroness Sara, contained in the crypt below
the apse.
LESSE, one of the most romantic of the smaller rivers of
Belgium. It rises at Ochamps in the Ardennes, and flowing in
a north-westerly course reaches the Meuse at Anseremme, a few
miles above Dinant. The river is only 49 m. long, but its meandering
course may be judged by the fact that it is no more than 29 m.
from Ochamps to Anseremme in a straight line. There is a good
deal of pretty scenery along this river, as, for instance, at Ciergnon,
but the most striking part of the valley is contained in the last
12 m. from Houyet to Anseremme. In this section the river is
confined between opposing walls of cliff ranging from 300 to 500 ft.
above the river. Here were discovered in the caves near Walzin
the bones of prehistoric men, and other evidence of the primitive
occupants of this globe at a period practically beyond computation.
Another curious natural feature of the Lesse is that on
reaching the hill of Han it disappears underground, reappearing
about 1 m. farther on at the village of that name. Here are the
curious and interesting Han grottoes. The Lesse receives
altogether in its short course the water of thirteen tributaries.
LESSEPS, FERDINAND DE (1805–1894). French diplomatist and maker of the Suez Canal, was born at Versailles on the 19th of November 1805. The origin of his family has been traced back as far as the end of the 14th century. His ancestors, it is believed, came from Scotland, and settled at Bayonne when that region was occupied by the English. One of his great-grandfathers was town clerk and at the same time secretary to Queen Anne of Neuberg, widow of Charles II. of Spain, exiled to Bayonne after the accession of Philip V. From the middle of the 18th century
