See A. Woodward, Memoir of General Nathaniel Lyon (Hartford, 1862); James Peckham, Life of Lyon (New York, 1866); and T. L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri (New York, 1886). Also Last Political Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon (New York, 1862).
LYONNESSE, Lyonesse, Leonnoys or Leonais, a legendary country off the south coast of Cornwall, England. Lyonnesse is the scene of many incidents in the Arthurian romances, and especially in the romances of Tristram and Iseult. It also plays
an important part in purely Cornish tradition and folklore. Early English chronicles, such as the Chronicon e chronicis of Florence of Worcester, who died in 1118, described minutely and without a suggestion of disbelief the flourishing state of Lyonnesse, and its sudden disappearance beneath the sea. The legend may be a greatly exaggerated version of some actual subsidence of inhabited land. There is also a very ancient local tradition, apparently independent of the story of Lyonnesse, that the Scilly Islands formed part of the Cornish mainland within historical times.
See Florentii Wigorniensis monachi Chronicon ex chronicis, &c., ed. B. Thorpe (London, 1848–1849).
LYONS, EDMUND LYONS, Baron (1790–1858), British admiral, was born at Burton, near Christchurch, Hampshire, on the 21st of November 1790. He entered the navy, and served in the Mediterranean, and afterwards in the East Indies, where in
1810 he won promotion by distinguished bravery. He became
post-captain in 1814, and in 1826 commanded the “Blonde”
frigate at the blockade of Navarino, and took part with the
French in the capture of Kasteo Morea. Shortly before his ship
was paid off in 1835 he was knighted. From 1840 till 1853 Lyons
was employed on the diplomatic service, being successively
minister to Greece, Switzerland and Sweden. On the outbreak
of the war with Russia he was appointed second in command of
the British fleet in the Black Sea under Admiral Dundas, whom
he succeeded in the chief command in 1854. As admiral of the
inshore squadron he had the direction of the landing of the troops
in the Crimea, which he conducted with marvellous energy and
despatch. According to Kinglake, Lyons shared the “intimate
counsels” of Lord Raglan in regard to the most momentous
questions of the war, and toiled, with a “painful consuming
passion,” to achieve the object of the campaign. His principal
actual achievements in battle were two—the support he rendered
with his guns to the French at the Alma in attacking the left
flank of the Russians, and the bold and brilliant part he took with
his ship the “Agamemnon” in the first bombardment of the
forts of Sebastopol; but his constant vigilance, his multifarious
activity, and his suggestions and counsels were much more
advantageous to the allied cause than his specific exploits. In
1855 he was created vice-admiral; in June 1856 he was raised
to the peerage with the title of Baron Lyons of Christchurch.
He died on the 23rd of November 1858.
See Adam S. Eardley-Wilmot, R.N., Life of Lord Lyons (1898).
LYONS, RICHARD BICKERTON PEMELL LYONS, 1st Earl (1817–1887), British diplomatist, son of the preceding, was born
at Lymington on the 26th of April 1817. He entered the
diplomatic service, and in 1859–1864 was British minister at
Washington, where, after the outbreak of the Civil War, the
extremely important negotiations connected with the arrest of the
Confederate envoys on board the British mail-steamer “Trent”
devolved upon him. After a brief service at Constantinople,
he succeeded Lord Cowley at the Paris embassy in 1867. In the
war of 1870 he used his best efforts as a mediator, and accompanied
the provisional government to Tours. He continued to
hold his post with universal acceptance until November 1887. He
died on the 5th of December 1887, when the title became extinct.
LYONS (Fr. Lyon), a city of eastern France, capital of the department of Rhône, 315 m. S.S.E. of Paris and 218 m. N. by W. of Marseilles on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) town,
430,186; commune, 472,114. Lyons, which in France is second
only to Paris in commercial and military importance, is situated
at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saône at an altitude of
540 to 1000 ft. above sea-level. The rivers, both flowing south,
are separated on the north by the hill on which lies the populous
working quarter of Croix-Rousse, then by the narrow tongue of
land ending in the Perrache Quarter. The peninsula thus formed
is over 3 m. long and from 650 to 1000 yds. broad. It is traversed
lengthwise by the finest streets of the city, the rue de la République,
the rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, and the rue Victor Hugo.
Where it enters Lyons the Saône has on its right the faubourg of
Vaise and on its left that of Serin, whence the ascent is made to
the top of the hill of Croix-Rousse. Farther on, its right bank
is bordered by the scarped heights of Fourvière, St Irénée,
Ste Foy, and St Just, leaving room only for the quays and one
or two narrow streets; this is the oldest part of the city. The
river sweeps in a semicircle around this eminence (410 ft. above
it), which is occupied by convents, hospitals and seminaries,
and has at its summit the famous church of Notre-Dame de
Fourvière, the resort of many thousands of pilgrims annually.
On the peninsula between the rivers, at the foot of the hill of Croix-Rousse, are the principal quarters of the town: the Terreaux, containing the hôtel de ville, and the chief commercial establishments; the wealthy residential quarter, centring round the Place Bellecour, one of the finest squares in France; and the Perrache. The Rhone and Saône formerly met on the site of this quarter, till, in the 18th century, the sculptor Perrache reclaimed it; on the peninsula thus formed stands the principal railway station, the Gare de Perrache with the Cours du Midi, the most extensive promenade in Lyons, stretching in front of it. Here, too, are the docks of the Saône, factories, the arsenal, gas-works and prisons. The Rhone, less confined than the Saône, flows swiftly in a wide channel, broken when the water is low in spring by pebbly islets. On the right hand it skirts first St Clair, sloping upwards to Croix-Rousse, and then the districts of Terreaux, Bellecour and Perrache; on the left it has a low-lying plain, occupied by the Parc de la Tête d’Or and the quarters of Brotteaux and Guillotière. The park, together with its lake, comprises some 285 acres, and contains a zoological collection, botanical and pharmaceutical gardens, and the finest greenhouses in France, with unique collections of orchids, palm-trees and Cycadaceae. It is defended from the Rhone by the Quai de la Tête d’Or, while on the east the railway line to Geneva separates it from the race-course. Brotteaux is a modern residential quarter. Guillotière to the south consists largely of workmen’s dwellings, bordering wide, airy thoroughfares. To the east extend the manufacturing suburbs of Villeurbanne and Montchat. The population, displaced by the demolition of the lofty old houses and the widening of the streets on the peninsula, migrates to the left bank of the Rhone, the extension of the city into the plain of Dauphiné being unhindered.
The Rhone and the Saône are bordered by fine quays and crossed by 24 bridges—11 over the Rhone, 12 over the Saône, and 1 at the confluence. Of these the Pont du Change over the Saône and the Pont de la Guillotière over the Rhone have replaced medieval bridges, the latter of the two preserving a portion of the old structure.
Of the ancient buildings Notre-Dame de Fourvière is the most celebrated. The name originally applied to a small chapel built in the 9th century on the site of the old forum (forum vetus) from which it takes its name. It has been often rebuilt, the chief feature being a modern Romanesque Public Buildings.tower surmounted by a cupola and statue of the Virgin. In 1872 a basilica was begun at its side in token of the gratitude of the city for having escaped occupation by the German troops. The building, finished in 1894, consists of a nave without aisles flanked at each exterior corner by a turret and terminating in an apse. The façade, the lower half of which is a lofty portico supported on four granite columns, is richly decorated on its upper half with statuary and sculpture. Marble and mosaic have been lavishly used in the ornamentation of the interior and of the crypt. Round the apse runs a gallery from which, according to an old custom, a benediction is pronounced upon the town annually on the 8th of September. From this gallery a magnificent view of the city and the surrounding country can be obtained. At the foot of the hill of Fourvière rises the cathedral of St Jean, one of the finest examples of early Gothic architecture in France. Begun in the 12th century, to the end of which the
