LEEDS LEFEBVRE. 



123 



nre in general well built, find, in the modern part of 

 the town, which is daily extending, handsome and 

 elegant. In the other parts, the streets are narrow 

 and crooked. Leeds is a place of great antiquity, 

 as it is mentioned by Bede, the ecclesiastical his- 

 torian ; and it is also noticed in Doomsday Survey. 

 A castle formerly existed here, which was besieged 

 by king Stephen in 1139; and in this fortress 

 Hichard II., after his deposition, in 1399, was con- 

 fined for a short time. Leland, writing in the reign 

 of Henry VIII., describes Leeds as " A pretty 

 market-town, subsisting chiefly by clothing, reason- 

 ably well builded, and as large as Bradford, but 

 not so quick as it." The town received its first 

 charter of incorporation from Charles I. in 1626, 

 when Sir John Savile, afterwards ennobled, was made 

 the first honorary alderman ; and in compliment to 

 him, the arms of the town are very appropriately 

 decorated with Lord Savile's supporters, two of the 

 Athenian birds, sacred to Minerva, the goddess of 

 wisdom, and patroness of the arts of spinning and 

 weaving. A second charter was given to the town 

 by Charles II., in 1661, and renewed by James II. 

 in 1684. 



Leeds has long been famous not only for (he manu- 

 facture of woollen cloth in general, but also as a mart 

 for the two varieties of mixed and white broad cloths. 

 The mixed cloths are those which are made with dyed 

 wool, which in the seventeenth century, were exposed 

 for sale on the battlements of the long and wide 

 bridge over the Aire, and afterwards in the open air 

 in the street, called the Briggate. The incon- 

 venience and damage to the cloth, from exposure to 

 the weather, suggested the necessity of a different 

 arrangement ; and in 1758 the mixed cloth-hall was 

 erected at the general expense of the merchants and 

 manufacturers. This is a quadrangular edifice, sur- 

 rounding a large open area, from which it receives 

 the light abundantly, by a great number of lofty 

 windows; it is 128 yards in length, and sixty-six in 

 breadth, divided in the interior into six departments, 

 or covered streets, each including two rows of stands, 

 amounting in number to 1800, held as freehold pro- 

 perty by various manufacturers, every stand being 

 marked with the name of the proprietor. This hall 

 is exclusively appropriated to the use of persons who 

 have served regular apprenticeship to the trade or 

 mystery of making coloured cloths. The markets 

 are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and only for an 

 hour and a half each day, at which period alone sales 

 can take place. The market-bell rings at six o'clock 

 in the morning in summer, and at seven in winter, 

 when the markets are speedily filled, the benches 

 covered with cloth, and the proprietors respectively 

 take their stands ; the bell ceasing, the buyers enter, 

 and proceed with secrecy, silence, and expedition, to 

 bargain for the cloth they may require, and business 

 is thus summarily transacted, often involving an 

 exchange of property to a vast amount. When the 

 time for selling is terminated, the bell again rings, 

 and any merchant staying in the hall after it has 

 ceased, becomes liable to a penalty. The hall is 

 under the management of fifteen trustees, who hold 

 their meetings in an octagonal building, erected near 

 the entrance to this hall. Similar in its plan to the 

 preceding, is the white cloth-hall, which is divided 

 into five streets, each with a double row of stands, 

 amounting in all to twelve hundred and ten. The 

 markets are held here on the same days, but they do 

 not commence till after the conclusion of those at the 

 mixed cloth-hall, and are subject nearly to the same 

 regulations. Besides these principal halls there is 

 also a small hall of more recent erection, in Albion 

 Street, appropriated to the use of such clothiers as 

 arc excluded from the others in consequence of not 



having served as apprentices to the trade. The 

 manufacturing district whence these halls are sup- 

 plied, extends about ten miles southwards of Leeds, 

 fifteen miles to the south-west, and eight or ten to the 

 north and west ; the mixed cloths being made chiefly 

 in the neighbourhood of the river Aire, and the white 

 cloths in that of the Calder. Large quantities of 

 fancy goods are also made, such as swandowns, 

 toilinets, kerseymeres, bear-skins, shalloons, stuffs, 

 Scotch camlets, blankets, carpets, pelisse-cloths, and 

 shawls in great variety. Near the town, are potteries, 

 where large quantities of earthenware are made, and 

 exported thence to Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Ger- 

 many, Russia, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean ; 

 here also are establishments for making canvass, 

 sacking, thread, &c. ; others for the finer kinds or 

 linen ; and in or near Leeds are several cotton-mills, 

 chiefly worked by means of steam-engines. Here are 

 also iron and brass foundries, with establishments for 

 making various kinds of machinery ; oil and mustard 

 mills, paper mills, silk-mills, and works for the pre- 

 paration of oil of vitriol, aquafortis, and other chemi- 

 cal articles. Within the parish, which is thirty miles 

 in circumference, are several productive coal-mines ; 

 and there are likewise quarries of argillaceous schist, 

 whence is procured an abundant supply of slates and 

 flagstones for paving. 



Leeds has many elegant public structures, among 

 which may be mentioned the theatre, the new court 

 house, and the commercial buildings. It enjoys the 

 benefits of a Literary and Philosophical Society, an 

 institution for the promotion of the fine arts, several 

 public libraries, &c. The population of Leeds, which 

 in 1775 was only 17,117, amounted in 1841 to 151,063. 



LEEK (allium porrmn) ; a mild kind of onion, 

 much cultivated and highly esteemed in some places 

 for culinary purposes. The stem is rather tall, and 

 the flowers are disposed in large compact balls, which 

 are supported on purple peduncles. 



LEEWARD ISLANDS. The terms Leeward and 

 Windward, applied to the West India islands, were 

 given them from their situation in a voyage from the 

 ports of Spain to Carthagena or Porto Bello. The 

 islands, which lie to leeward, extend from Porto Rico 

 to Dominica. 



LEE WARD, To, denotes towards that part of the 

 horizon which lies under the lee, or whither the wind 

 blows. 



LEFEBVRE, FRANCOIS JOSEPH, duke of Dantzic, 

 marshal and peer of France, &c., born at Rufack, 

 department of the Upper Rhine, in 1755, and after hav- 

 ing served with distinction in the wars of the republic 

 and the empire, died in 1820. He entered the mili- 

 tary service in the gardes Francoises, and at the 

 revolution was sergeant. Having warmly embraced 

 the new principles, and distinguished himself by his 

 prudence and firmness, his promotion was rapid. In 

 1794, he was made general of division; and, in the 

 succeeding campaigns, continued to render himself 

 conspicuous by his courage and military skill. He 

 espoused the cause of general Bonaparte, whose 

 designs he was able to forward on the eighteenth 

 Brumaire, as he had, at that time, the command of 

 the seventeenth military division, which included 

 Paris. His services on this occasion were rewarded 

 by the dignities of senator, marshal of the empire, 

 grand cross of the legion of honour. He bore an 

 important part in the victory of Jena, distinguished 

 himself at Eylau, and received the chief command at 

 the siege of Dantzic, at which he gave the most 

 brilliant proofs of genius and humanity. In 1808, he 

 served in Spain; in 1809, again in Germany; and, 

 in the Russian campaign, commanded the imperial 

 guard. After the abdication of the emperor, the king 

 created him peer, and, during the hundred days, 



