LELY LEMMING. 



London, about the end of tlie reign of Henry VII. 

 He was educated at St Paul's school, and Christ's 

 college, Cambridge, whence he removed to Oxford, 

 and then to Paris, for further improvement. Return- 

 ing home, he took holy orders. Henry VIII. made 

 him his chaplain and librarian, and gave him the 

 title of royal antiquary. In 1533, he was empowered, 

 by a commission under the great seal, to search for 

 objects of antiquity in the archives and libraries of 

 all cathedrals, abbeys, priories, &c. ; in consequence 

 of which, he spent six years in travelling over the 

 kingdom, visiting the remains of ancient buildings 

 ami monuments, and collecting materials for the illus- 

 tration of the history and archaeology of England 

 and Wales. He retired to his house in London, to 

 arrange and methodize the stores of intelligence 

 which he had collected, but, after about two years, 

 died insane, in 1552, without having completed his 

 undertaking. The great bulk of his collections, after 

 passing through various hands, was placed in the 

 Bodleian library, in an indigested state. Hearne 

 printed a considerable part, forming the Itinerary of 

 John Leland (nine vols. 8vo), and Lclandi Antiquarii 

 de Rebus Britannicis Commentaria (six vols. 8vo). 



LELY, SIR PETER, a celebrated painter, was born 

 at Soest, in Westphalia, in 1017. His father, a 

 native of Holland, whose family name was Van der 

 Vaes, was a captain in the garrison of that town, but, 

 having acquired the nickname of captain Le Lys, or 

 Lely, his son retained it as a proper name. He was 

 first instructed by Peter Grebber, at Haerlem, and, 

 attracted by the encouragement afforded to the arts 

 by Charles I., he went to England, in 1641, and com- 

 menced portrait-painter. He finished portraits both 

 of that monarch and of Cromwell ; but it was not 

 until the restoration, that he rose to the height of 

 his fame and prosperity. He fell in with the volup- 

 tuous taste of the new court, in his representation of 

 the beauties who adorned it, and, by the delicacy and 

 grace of his pencil, became the favourite ladies' 

 painter. Fie has transmitted the features of most 

 of the beauties of the court of Charles II., and is 

 particularly admired for the grace of the heads and 

 the elegance of the draperies. He was in great 

 favour with Charles II., who knighted him. He 

 died in 1680. The " beauties" at Windsor, by him, 

 are much admired. He likewise excelled in crayon 

 painting. His historical pictures are few. At 

 W indsor, there is a Magdalen and a sleeping Venus. 

 The duke of Devonshire has his Jupiter and Europa; 

 lord Pomfret, his Cimon and Iphigenia. See Wai- 

 pole's Anecdotes of Painting. 



LEMAN, or LAC LEMAN ; the name of the 

 former French department, comprehending the repub- 

 lic of Geneva, from Lemanus, the. ancient name of 

 the lake of Geneva. 



LEMBERG, or LEOPOLIS (in Polish, Lwow); 

 capital of the kingdom of Galicia, with 47,500 inha- 

 bitants, of whom 18,249 are Jews; nexttoBrody, the 

 most important commercial place in the circle of the 

 same name. It is the seat of the Austrian provincial 

 government. Lon. 24 2' 53" E.; lat. 49 P 51' 42" 

 N. Lemberg is the see of a Roman Catholic, a 

 Greek Catholic, and an Armenian archbishop, and 

 the seat of the Lutheran superintendent, and of the 

 chief rabbi. It has a university, which was transfer- 

 red to Cracow, but, in 1817, was re-established 

 (twenty-six professors and 220 students). There 

 are several high schools, two theological seminaries, 

 &c. The Ossolinsky library is public. Lemberg is 

 sixty-eight leagues east of Cracow, is fortified, and 

 carries on considerable trade. 



LEMIERRE, ANTOINE MARIN ; a French drama- 

 tist, born in 1733, at Paris. He received a good educa- 

 tion, but, being deprived of his parents while young, 



he became- assistant sacristan to the church of St 

 Paul. At his leisure, he composed sermons for sale 

 in manuscript a circumstance which made him 

 known to the abbe D'Olivet, who employed him to 

 correct the proofs of his edition of Cicero. He was 

 then made an under master of rhetoric at the college 

 of Harcourt, in which situation he wrote a tragedy, 

 rejected at the theatre. He afterwards gained six 

 poetical prizes, offered by provincial academies. His 

 tragedy of Hypermnestra was acted with success in 

 1758. He subsequently obtained a place in the 

 office of a farmer-general, who, perceiving that he 

 was better qualified to make plays than to keep finan- 

 cial accounts, generously bestowed on him a pension, 

 that he might be enabled to devote himself to litera- 

 ture. I n 1 78 1 , he was chosen a member of the French 

 academy; and he died in 1792. He produced seve- 

 ral tragedies, among which the best and most suc- 

 cessful were his Widow of Malabar, and William 

 Tell : he also published Les Pastes, ou les Usages de 

 I'Annee, a poem in sixteen cantos ; and a collection, 

 entitled Pieces fugitives (1782, 8vo). 



LEMMA, in mathematics, denotes a preliminary 

 proposition, laid down in order to clear the way for 

 some following demonstration, and prefixed either to 

 theorems, in order to render their demonstration less 

 perplexed and intricate, or to problems, to make 

 their solution more easy and short. 



LEMMING (georychus, Ulig.). These quadru- 

 peds, which are of the rat kind, are distinguished by 

 the conformation of the fore feet, and the shortness 

 of the tail. The fore feet are adapted for burrowing. 

 The tail is shorter than the body. Among the species, 

 the most interesting are the lemming rat (&'. lemmus) 

 and the Hudson's bay lemming (G. Hudsonius). 

 The former of these inhabits the northern parts of 

 Europe, is about the size of the common rat, of 

 tawny colour variegated with black, the sides of the 

 head and the under parts being white. The legs 

 and tail are grayish, and the under parts of the body 

 of a dull white. The head is large, short, and thick; 

 the eyes small ; the limbs stout. They feed entirely 

 on vegetables. They form shallow burrows, in sum- 

 mer time, under the ground, and, in winter, make 

 long passages under the snow in search of food. 

 The most extraordinary characteristic of these ani - 

 mals is their migrations, which they undertake at 

 irregular epochs, seeming to be guided by the seve- 

 rity of the approaching winter. In these migra- 

 tions, they assemble in incredible numbers, and 

 always march in a straight line, nothing seeming to 

 turn them aside. If they are disturbed whilst swim- 

 ming over a lake or river, they will not recede, but 

 swim on, and soon re-assume their former order. 

 They chiefly move at night, or early in the morning, 

 and make such a destruction among the herbage, that 

 the surface of the ground over which they have pass- 

 ed appears denuded. Exposed as they are to every 

 attack, and destroyed in attempting to cross rivers 

 and lakes, the diminution of their numbers is very 

 great, so that few return to their native haunts. 

 They never enter dwellings, but keep in the open 

 air. When enraged, they raise themselves on their 

 hind feet, and utter a barking sound. Sometimes 

 they divide into two parties, and attack each other. 

 They breed several times in the year, producing five 

 or six at a birth. Their numbers are so great in 

 particular years, that the common people, in Nor- 

 way, believe that they descend from the clouds. From 

 the devastations which they commit, they are often 

 exorcised by the Roman Catholic clergy.* Their 

 flesh is not used as food, nor the skins for the fur. 



Tlie Hudson's bay lemming is of an ash colour, 



* The following is the form of the exorcism used : "' Ex 



