LANCASTER, HOUSE OF 



noted for its manufacture of Hamilton watches 

 (the output valued at $2,000,000 annually), 

 umbrellas, parasols and canes; in the latter 

 Lancaster ranks next to New York City. The 

 manufactured goods of Lancaster city and 

 county are valued at $41,000,000 yearly. 



Buildings and Institutions. There are sev- 

 eral attractive parks, the largest of which are 

 Long's, seventy-seven acres, and Williamson's, 

 seventy-one acres. In the city is a soldiers' 

 and sailors' monument, marking the spot 

 where the Continental Congress convened in 

 1777 (see CAPITALS OF THE UNITED STATES). 

 Prominent buildings include the courthouse, 

 Federal building, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. 

 buildings and the public market houses. 

 Among the public libraries of the city are the 

 Watts De Peyster Library, A. Heir Smith 

 Memorial Library, Lancaster Law Library, 

 and a semipublic library is' owned by the Lan- 

 caster County Historical Society. A number 

 of important church periodicals and scientific 

 magazines are published' here. 



Lancaster is the seat of Franklin and Mar- 

 shall College, Franklin and Marshall Academy, 

 Froebel Kindergarten, Shippen School for Girls, 

 Sacred Heart and Saint Mary's academies, 

 Thaddeus Stevens Industrial School, Reformed 

 Theological Seminary and Yeates Institute for 

 Hoys. In near-by towns are important schools ; 

 at Millersville is the oldest and largest nor- 

 mal school in the state; and at Lititz is the 

 Moravian Seminary for girls, which is more 

 than a century old. 



The charitable institutions include the Ann 

 C. Witmer Home for Widows and Maiden 

 Ladies, the Long Home for Aged Women and 

 the Stevens Home for Friendless Children. 

 There are Lancaster General, Saint Joseph's 

 Catholic and Lancaster County hospitals and 

 tin* Lancaster County Hospital for the Insane. 



The town was settled by English Quakers 

 and Germans in 1717, incorporated as a bor- 

 ough in 1742, and received its charter as a city 

 in 1818. c.x. 



LANCASTER, HOUSE OF, the name of the 

 kingly line that ruled in England from 1399 

 to 1461 and again in 1470-1471. The name 

 originated during the reign of Henry III, who 

 in 1267 conferred the title Earl of Lancaster 

 on his second son, Edmund. On the failure of 

 male heirs, John of Gaunt, fourth son of Ed- 

 ward III, married Blanche, the heiress of the 

 House of Lancaster. Gaunt was created Duke 

 of Lancaster in 1362, and at the same time his 

 elder brother, Lionel, was created Duke of 



LANCEWOOD 



( M;.irencc. In such manner originated the rival 

 houses of Lancaster and York, whose emblems 

 were, respectively, the red rose and the white 

 rose. 



In 1399, Henry of Lancaster, son of John of 

 Gaunt, dethroned Richard II and became king 

 as Henry IV, for, though his title was defec- 

 tive, his claim to the throne was accepted by 

 Parliament. Henry was the first English king 

 to rule by Parliamentary right. His successor, 

 Henry V (1413-1422), maintained his position 

 by winning the favor of Parliament and the 

 Church, and by grace of his brilliant successes 

 in the Hundred Years' War. The weak and 

 inefficient Henry VI, who was deposed in 1461 

 and restored for a brief period in 1470, and 

 whose troubled reign culminated in the Wars 

 of the Roses, was the last representative of 

 the Lancastrian line. Shakespeare gives ;i 

 vivid picture of this period of English history 

 in his King Henry VI. 



In connection with the above, see YORK. 

 HOUSE OFj the rival of the Lancastrian line, and 

 ROSES., WARS OF THE. 



LANCELOT, Ian' se lot, generally known as 

 SIR LANCELOT DU LAC, one of the knights cele- 

 brated in the traditions and fables relating to 

 King Arthur and the Round Table, as they 

 found final shape in the Morte d' Arthur (1469) 

 of Sir Thomas Malory. According to these, 

 Lancelot was of royal birth. He was educated 

 by the Lady of the Lake and was taken by her 

 to Arthur's court, where he became one of the 

 chief knights. His love for Guinevere, the 

 beautiful wife of Arthur, constituted the trag- 

 edy of Lancelot's life. He fought in many 

 combats for her, always extricating himself 

 with valor under the protection of the Lady 

 of the Lake. When Guinevere entered the 

 sanctuary, he, too, was received into a cloister, 

 thus giving up forever the hope of taking her 

 away to the distant retreat of Joyeuse Garden. 

 Upon the death of Guinevere he was sum- 

 moned to bury her beside the corpse of Arthur. 

 and he soon followed her in death. Elaine, 

 the beautiful maid of Astolat, loved Lancelot 

 and died for her love. Lancelot is one of the 

 chief characters of Tennyson's Idylls of the 

 King, and the story of his love for Guinevere 

 is the principal theme of the twelve books. 

 See ARTHUR, KING; MALORY, SIR THOMAS. 



LANCE 'WOOD, the name of several tropical 

 trees and their wood, which is of unusual 

 tenacity and elasticity. Because of these quali- 

 ties it is much used for cabinetwork, survey- 

 ors' and fishing rods, carriage shafts, etc. Even 



