LOMBARDS 



3487 



LONDON 



than the other gods, and when he desired he 

 could exercise his ingenuity in behalf of the 

 other gods, and the results were most beneficial. 

 He was usually occupied, however, in wicked 

 scheming. See MYTHOLOGY; ODIN; BALDER. 



LOM' BARDS, from langobard, meaning 

 longbeard, a tribe related to the Germans whose 

 original home was on the Lower Elbe. In the 

 first century they fought their way southward 

 and eastward till they came to the Roman bor- 

 der on the Danube. For several centuries they 

 were held there, then in the sixth century they 

 invaded and made themselves masters of Pan- 

 nonia. Under King Albion (568-572) they con- 

 quered the northern part of Italy, which still 

 bears the name of Lombardy. During the 

 reign of King Liutprand (712-744) the Lombard 

 kingdom reached its greatest prosperity. The 

 powerful and troublesome exarchate of Ra- 

 venna had been subdued, the petty princes and 

 rebellious cities were under control, and because 

 the Lombards had turned Roman Catholic 

 even the Pope was friendly. 



Peace did not last long, for after Liutprand's 

 death war between the 'different cities and the 

 ambitious dukes began again. The Pope, be- 

 ginning to be alarmed about these savages 

 whose conquests were bringing them so uncom- 

 fortably close to his own lands, asked the 

 Frankish king to help him. The Lombards were 

 compelled to give up all further invasion and 

 even to turn over to the Church some of the 

 cities they had conquered. This kept peace till 

 774, when Charlemagne sent back his wife, the 

 daughter of the Lombard king, Desiderius. In 

 the war that followed this insult, the Lombards 

 were beaten, and in 803 Charlemagne crowned 

 himself with the famous Iron Crown of Lom- 

 bardy (see subhead under CROWN). All that 

 remains of this savage and once powerful tribe 

 is the name they gave to Northern Italy and 

 the set of laws of Rothari, which was used in 

 the Middle Ages as a model of laws by several 

 German kingdoms. 



LOMBARDY, that part of Northern Italy 

 which derived its name from the Lombards, 

 who occupied it in the sixth century, and which 

 now comprises the provinces of Bergamo, Bres- 

 cia, Como, Cremona, Mantua, Pavia and Son- 

 drio. Lombardy is the most important indus- 

 trial region in Italy. It produces immense 

 quantities of wine and silk and is noted for its 

 cheese. It covers an area of 9,374 square miles, 

 almost exactly the area of New Hampshire; in 

 1911 its population was 4,786,907, eleven times 

 as great as that of New Hampshire. 



LOMOND, lo'mund, LOCH, the largest of the 

 Scottish lakes, famous for its beautiful scenery. 

 It is encircled by ranges of hills, and its surface 

 is dotted with many islands. A branch of the 

 Grampian Mountains, rising on the eastern side, 

 culminates in Ben Lomond, 3,192 feet high, on 

 the edge of the lake. Loch Lomond is twenty- 

 three miles long and seven miles wide at the 

 upper end, although only half a mile wide at 

 the lower, or southern, end. It lies between 

 Dumbartonshire on the west and the county of 

 Stirling on the east. The name of this pic- 

 turesque lake occurs frequently in a beautiful 

 Scotch song, the opening lines of which are the 

 familiar words: 



By yon bonny banks and by yon bonny braes, 

 The sun shines bright on Loch Lomond, 

 Where me and my true love will ne'er meet again, 

 On the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond. 



LONDON, lun'dun, the county town of Mid- 

 dlesex County, a customs port of entry and the 

 commercial center of Western Ontario. It is 

 situated on the Thames River, 114 miles south- 

 west of Toronto, 111 miles northeast of Detroit 

 and twenty-three miles north of Lake Erie, by 

 rail. The following railroads enter the city: 

 Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific, and a city- 

 owned and operated railroad to Port Stanley- 

 London's harbor on Lake Erie connects with 

 the Pere Marquette, Wabash and Michigan 

 Central. Radial and branch lines north, south, 

 east and west center at this point, and the city 

 railway connects with steamship service to 

 Canadian and United States lake ports. The 

 first settlement was made here in 1826 by Peter 

 McGregor, a Highland Scotchman ; the city was 

 incorporated in 1854. The population in 1911 

 was 46,300; in 1916 it was estimated at 58,055. 



Through its fine shipping facilities by rail 

 and by water, London has become a manufac- 

 turing and distributing center of importance. 

 Between 12,000 and 13,000 people are employed 

 in the various industrial establishments, the 

 largest of which are iron and brass foundries, 

 factories for making biscuits, candy, cigars, 

 stoves, clothing and boilers, printing houses and 

 breweries. There are large wholesale houses 

 here. The produce market is an important fac- 

 tor in the city's trade. According to estimates, 

 over $2,000,000 worth of fresh country products 

 are sold here annually. The cheese alone is 

 valued at $1,000,000. London has a garbage 

 incinerator and an abattoir. Noteworthy build- 

 ings are the post office, custom house, city hall, 

 Masonic Temple, Y. M. C. A. building, the 

 Armories and Wolseley Barracks. The benevo- 



