Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/73

ZEBRTJN. 63 LECHFORD. him a place in the Academy (1828). Among tlipse plays may be mentioned Vli/sse (1815), Pallas (1822), and especially Marie Stuart (1820). His poem Voyage en fjri-ce was pub- li-ilied in 1828, and his works were collected in 1844-G.3. LEBRITN, PoxcE Dexis Ecouchard (called Lebrux-Pindake) (1729-1807). A French poet, bom in Paris. He was educated at the Coll&pe Mazarin, and early began to write verses. After- wards he became secretary to the Prince de Conti. He lived in the gay literary society of the time, wrote letters and exchanged epigrams, and won the title of Pindar for the perfection and imagina- tion displayed in his odes. He lacked the warmth and real feeling to make him a great poet, but his epigrams are models. His works were pub- lished with a notice by Ginguene in 1811, and his T.urres choisies, with a biography by Desprez and Campenon, in 1821 and 1828. LE CARON, le ka'rox', Josepu ( ?-16.32). A French RtcoUet missionaiy to the Indians in America. He went with three other RecoUets to Canada in 1G15; with other Franciscans built a monastery near Quebec: and penetrated in the Siinie year to Lake Huron, which he was the first white man to reach. His mission was un- successful, as was a second attempt in 1623. He was sent to England after the capture of Quebec in 1029, and never succeeded in getting back to Canada. His studies of the Huron lan- guage were of value to his successors. LECCE, le'cha. Capital of the Province of Lecce, Italy, 24 miles by rail south of Brindisi, and seven miles from tlie Adriatic (Jlap: Italy, N 7 ) . Electric ears carry excursionists to Castello di San Cataldo on the coast. In- teresting buildings are the sixteenth-century Church of Santa Croce; the sixteenth-centurj- Prefettura, formerly a Celestine convent, con- taining a valuable collection of ancient vases, coins, and inscriptions; the seventeenth-century baroque Churci of San Domenico; the sixteenth- centviry hospital; the seventeenth-century cathedral; and in the Campo Santo (cemetery) the Church of Santi Xieola e Cataldo, built by the Xorman Count Tancred in 1180. The streets are narrow and crooked. Lecce has a public garden, a chamber of commerce, a technical school, a gymnasium, a female normal school, a technical institute, a school of agriculture, and a provincial library. It is famous for the high quality of its oil and for the great tobacco factory in what was once a Dominican convent. It has cotton, wool, soap, and leather manufac- tures, and the country produces grain, fruit, honey, cotton, hemp, tobacco, cattle, and sheep. The ancient city here was called Lupia. and in near-by Rudi;e(now the village of Rugge) Ennius (q.v. ) was horn in B.C. 239. Popiilation (com- mune), in 1881. 2.5,934; in 1001. .32.687. Con- sult Simone, Lecce e i suoi dintorni ile.icriiti ed illtiatrati (I^cce, 1874). LECCO, lek'kft. A city in the Province of Como, Italy, on the southeastern arm (called Lake of I*cco) of Lake Como (q.v. ). 32 miles by rail north of ililan (Map: Italy. D 2). It has statues of Garibaldi and of llanzoni. in whose / Pronics.st Sposi the locality is beautifully described. Over the Adda, which issues from Lake Como here, there is a ten-arch stone bridge, with towers at each end, built in 133.5. There are a city hospital, an orphan asylum for girls, i a technical school, an industrial school, a city library, a theatre, and a chamber of commerce and arts. Industrially Leceo is important for its silk, cotton, and iron manufactures, and cattle market. Population (commune), in 1881. 8042; in 1901, 10,27.5. In the Jliddle Ages the city was a fortified place and the seat of a count until the twelfth century, when it came into the pos- session of Milan.' April 20, 1799, the French under Serrurier were defeated here by the Aus- trians and Russians. LECCO, Lake of (It. Lngo di Lecco). The southeastern arm of Lake Como (q.v. J, Italy. LECH, leK (Lat. Licus. A right tributary of the Danube. It rises in the Lake of Forma- rin in Vorarlberg. Tyrol, at an altitude of about 0000 feet (Map: Germany, D 4). Its course in the mountain ranges of Tyrol is tor- tuous and swift, and on entering Bavaria it forms the finest rapids in Germany. Even in its course through Bavaria, the river retains the character of a mountain stream. It joins the Danul^ at the ruined Castle of Lechsend after a course of about 180 miles and a total descent of over 4600 feet. Its chief tributaries are the Vils and the Wertach. Here, in 1032, Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Imperialists under Tilly, who was mortally wounded. See Leciifeld. LECHEVAXIER, le-she-valya', Jean Bap- tiste (1752-1836). A French archa^ilogist. He was born at Trelly, Xormandy, France, and was educated for the ministry. In 1784 he accom- panied the Count of Choiseul-Gouiiler as secre- tary to the Levant, and with him made ililigent researclies in the plain of Troy (1784-.S6I. He was director of the library of Sainte Genevi&-e in Paris from 1808 until his death. Of his works, the best known are his Voyage dans la Troade (1800; translated into English by Dalzel, under the title of a Description of the Plain of Troy); and Vlysse-Bomere (1829). in which he asserts that L'lysses was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Consult Xoel, Jean-Baptiste Lecheialier (Paris, 1840). LECHFELD, leK'felt. A plain in Bavaria, south of Augsburg, on the banks of the river Lech, where Otho the Great in 955 inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Hungarians or Mag- yars. This defeat checked their incursions, and caused them to give up their plundering expedi- tions, which had long been a scourge to Europe, and <'s[Koially to Gennany. LECH'FORD, Tuoiias (?-c.1645). The first lawyer in Boston. Before leaving England he was a member of Clement's Inn. and it was probably the assistance which he gave to a barrister named Prvnne, who was found giiilty of libel by the Star Chamber, that got him into trouble with the home authorities and led to his seeking an asylum in America, where he arrived in 1038. 'The Massachusetts Gcvem- ment also looked upon him with small fsvur. not liecau.se of liis politics. Init because of his profes- sion and his religious views. I'nable to secure any cases in the courts, he was, to quote his own words, "forced to get his living by writing petty things, which scarce found him bread." After three years of this unhappy existence, he re- turned to England in 1041. and there published a book entitled Plain Dealing; or, yews from