Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/334

This page needs to be proofread.

328 LEIPA LEIPSIO Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow, besides the cities of Dublin and Kilkenny, and the town of Drog- heda, which are counties in themselves. The coast is generally low, but in some places bold and rocky. The best harbors are at Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, and Carlingford. There are no large lakes. The province contains six navigable rivers, the Shannon, Barrow, Nore, Boyne, Liffey, and Slaney. The surface is partly level and partly rolling, being on the whole the least broken portion of Ireland. There are three or four mountain groups oc- cupying parts of Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford, Queen's, and King's counties, and a few hills in Westmeath, Louth, and Kilkenny. Elsewhere are large peat fields, the principal of which is the great bog of Allen. The soil, resting on limestone and clay slate, is the best in the kingdom. The Kilkenny coal field, be- tween the Barrow and Nore, is the most ex- tensively worked in Ireland, and also produces excellent ironstone. Wicklow has five copper and four lead mines, yielding silver, and in Croghan there is a gold mine, now abandoned. At the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century Leinster was divided into two kingdoms, Meath in the north and Lega- nia or Leinster proper in the south. LEIPA, a town of Bohemia, on the Bolzen, 41 m. N. by E. of Prague ; pop. in 1869, 9,244. It has a gymnasium, and a flourishing indus- try, the principal manufactures being cloth, linen, steel ware, cotton goods, and vinegar. The town suffered severely during the Hus- site, thirty years', and seven years' wars. LEIPSIC (Ger. Leipzig), a city of Saxony, in an extensive and fertile valley, watered by the Town Hall and Market Place, Leipsic. Pleisse, here joined by the Elster and other small rivers, within a few miles of the Prussian frontier, 60 m. W. N. W. of Dresden, and 92 m. S. S. W. of Berlin; pop. in 1871, 106,925. Most of the ancient fortifications, excepting the castle or citadel of Pleissenburg, have been converted into public walks and partly laid out as gardens. The most fashionable public square is the Augustusplatz ; and the most picturesque from the quaintness of its buildings, particu- larly of the town hall (Rathhaus), is the Markt- platz. The allied sovereigns met in this square after the battle of Leipsic, previous to which Napoleon had resided there in the Konigshaus, so called from having formerly served as an electoral and royal residence. Near the square stands Auerbach's cellar, made famous by Goethe's "Faust," and still frequented by the students. The principal Protestant churches are those of St. Nicholas, St. Thomas, and St. Paul's or university church. Leipsic contains monuments of Gellert, Prince Poniatowski, who was drowned in the Elster at the close of the great battle in 1813, Hahnemann, Bach, and other eminent persons. Among the prin- cipal public buildings are the observatory, which occupies the tower of the citadel of Pleissenburg, the general exchange and book exchange, the Saxon-Bavarian railway depot, the post office, the custom house (finished in 1853), the new city theatre (finished in 1868), and the new city hospital (opened in 1871). Leipsic takes a foremost position in Germany, in the history of the reformation as well as of literature. The university is one of the old- est in Germany ; the 450th anniversary of its foundation was celebrated in December, 1859. Prominent among the university buildings is