L Y D 
ptrion, to avenge her wrongs. The children, incenfed on 
account of the cruelties which their mother had luffered, 
befieged Thebes, killed Lycus, and tied Dirce to the tail of 
a wild bull, who dragged her till the died. Paif A polled. 
LY'CUS, a king -of Libya, who facrificed whatever 
flran^ers came upon his coaft. When Dioinedes, at his 
return from the Trojan war, had been Shipwrecked there, 
the tyrant feized him and confined him. He, however, 
efcaped by means of Callirhoe, the tyrant’s daughter, who 
was enamoured of him, and who hung herfelf when file 
faw herfelf deferted. 
LY'CUS, a fon of Neptune by Celaeno, made king of a 
part of Myfia by Hercules. He offered violence to Me- 
para, the wife of Hercules, for which he was killed by the 
incenfed hero. Lycus gave a kind reception to the Ar¬ 
gonauts. Apollodorus. 
LY'CUS, in ancient geography, a river of Sarmatia, 
fouth-weft of Rhodus, which difeharged itfelf into the 
Euxine fea. It is mentioned by Ovid.—A river, which, 
according to Herodotus, took its life in the country in¬ 
habited by the Thyffagetae, and, traverfing that of the 
MseotEE, ran into the Palus Mmotis. Ptolemy mentions 
this river, which is fuppofed to be the fame with the pre¬ 
ceding.—A river of Afia, in Phrygia.—A river of Afia 
Minor, in Caria, the foiirce of which was in mount Cad¬ 
mus, and it formed a lake in Latmicus Sinus.—A river in 
Sicily, the fame with Halycus.—A river of Macedonia, 
mentioned by Plutarch.—A river of Afia Minor, in Myfia, 
in the canton of Pergamus.—A river of Afia, which, pro¬ 
ceeding from Armenia, watered the plain near the town 
of Heraclea, and difcliarged itfelf into the Iris.—A river 
of Afia, in Bithynia, the fame with Rhyndacus, according 
to Pliny.—A river of Afia, in Pontus, which mixed its 
waters with thofe of the Iris.—A river of Afia, in Cappa¬ 
docia, according to Ptolemy, who fays that it was one of 
the branches of the Abforrus, which fell into the Euxine 
fea.—A river of Afia, in Aflyria, according to Polybius 
and Ptolemy.—A river of Afia, in Syria, near the gulf of 
Iffus, according to Pliny.—A fmall river of the lfle of 
Cyprus, which had its fource in the interior of the ifiand 
at mount Olympus, and difeharged itfelf into the fea to 
the weft of Amathus.—A river of Phoenicia, which ran 
between Byblos and Beryta, according to the Itinerary of 
Antonine. 
LYD. See Lid, vol. xii. p. 623. 
LYDD, a fmall market-town in the county of Kent, 
occupies a low feite near the fouth-weftern extremity of 
the county, where a point of land running out into the 
fea forms Dengenefs-bay, which, though very open, is of 
preat fervice for veffels when the wind fets violently from 
particular quarters. Leland fays, “ Lydd is counted as a 
part of Rumeney, is iii myles beyond Rumeney town, and 
is a market. The town is of a prety quantite, and the 
townefch men ufes botes to the fe, the w-hich at this time 
is a myle of. The hole town is conteyned in one paroche, 
but that is very large. Tlier is a place beyond Lydde, 
wher at a great numbre of holme trees groueth upon a 
banke of baches throwen up by the fe : and tlier they bat 
fowlc, and kill many birdes.” The chuVch, which is a 
fpacious edifice, confifts of a nave, chancel, and aides, 
with a maflive tower, ornamented with pinnacles at the 
weft end. The monuments are numerous, and among 
them are many braffes, chiefly for bailiffs and jurats of 
the town. Lydd is a corporate town by prefeription, and, 
like Romney, of which it is a member, is governed by a 
bailiff, jurats, chamberlain, and commonalty. The inha¬ 
bitants are chiefly engaged in fifiiing, and other maritime 
employments, of which fmuggling is confidered as forming 
a material branch. Lydd has a fmall market on Thurl- 
days, and an annual fair on the firft Monday in Septem¬ 
ber. The holm-trees, or fea-liollies, mentioned by Le- 
land, dill grow on the beach near the town. On the 
poinbof land called Dengenefs, is a light-houfe, no feet 
high, erefted a few years ago, in place of a more ancient 
one, from which the fea had retired fo far as to require a 
LYD 819 
new one in a more advanced fituation. This point is alfo 
defended by a fort, and feveral ranges of barracks have 
been erecled in the vicinity. The diftance from Lydd to 
Rye is twelve miles, Tenterden fixteen, Appledore ten, 
Brookland five, Brenfet five, Old Romney three, and New 
Romney three and a half. The town of Lydd was for. 
many years remarkable for a fifhery carried on at the Nefs 
Beach ; but it has lately decreafed, and is not now of much 
account. In the beach near Stone-end, is a heap of ftones, 
fancifully called the tombs of Crifpin and Crifpianus. 
Promhill, or Bromhill, in Kent and Suffex, is three 
miles fouth-weft of Lydd. The lead part of it, which is 
in Kent, is faid to be a member of the town and port of 
New Romney, but is claimed by the corporation of Lydd. 
It was a pretty town, and much reforted to, before it was 
drowned by the fea in the reign of Edward the Firft. Bri- 
tijk Dircflory. England's Gaz. Beauties of Engl, 
LYD'DA, in Hebrew Lud or Lod, by the Greeks and 
Latins called Lydda and Dio/polis ; a town of Judea, in the 
way from Jerufalem to Crefaria Philippi. It lay eaft of 
Joppa, four or five leagues from that city, and belonged 
to the tribe of Ephraim ; but feems to have been inhabited 
by the Benjamites at the return from the Babylonifii cap¬ 
tivity. Neh. xi. 35. Lydda is one of the three toparchies 
which were difmembered from Samaria, and given to the 
Jews. 1 Macc, xi. 34. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 8. St. Pe¬ 
ter, coming to Lydda, cured a man there (ick of the palfy, 
whofe name was Asneas. Adis ix. 32, 33, 34. The Jews 
inform us, that, after the deftruftion of Jerufalem, they 
let up feveral academies in different places of Paleftine, 
and in particular at Lydda, where the famous Akiba was 
a profeffor for fome time. Gamaliel fucceeded him; and 
after them appeared Tafpho, or Trypho, another famous 
rabbin, whom fome have confounded with Trypho the 
Jew who has a part in Juftin’s Dialogue. 
LYD'DAM, a village in Shropfhire, north of Biftiop’s 
Caftle. 
LYD'DEN, a village in Kent, fouth-eaft of Barham 
Downs. 
LYD'DON, a river in Dorfetfliire, which rifes on the 
weftern fide of a ridge of hills in Buckland hundred, and 
continues running, in a northern direction, about five 
miles to Bagborough, where it is joined by a confiderable 
brook, and falls into the Stour a little above Sturmifter- 
Newton. 
LY'DE, a woman’s name; the wife of Antimachus. 
LYDTORD. See Lidford, vol. xii. p. 624, 5. 
LYD'GATE (John), an early Englifh verfifier, was 
born at Hatfield Brcadoak in Effex, and became a black 
monk of the Benediffine abbey at Bury St. Edmund’s*; he 
flourifhed in the earlier part of the fifteenth century, and 
reign of Henry VI. He received part of his education at 
Oxford; and then travelled into France and Italy, front 
which countries he brought an acquaintance with polite 
literature, fuch as it was, of the times. It is affirmed by 
fome biographers that he was well verfed in languages ; 
yet he himfelf, in his “Fall of Princes,” mentioning that 
he tranflated it out of the French, fays, “ Of other tongue 
I have no fuffifance.” He was, however, regarded in his 
age as an extraordinary proficient in learning ; and is faid 
to have been not only a poet and rhetorician, but a geo¬ 
metrician, aftronomer, theologian, and dialectic. He 
opened a fchool in his monaftery for teaching the fons of 
the nobility the arts of verfification and compofition. He 
was himfelf an imitator of Chaucer; and, though he pof- 
feffed very little invention or poetical fpirit, yet he may 
be reckoned among thofe who contributed to the im¬ 
provement of the Englifh language and verfification. His 
ftyle, though rude and prolix, is perfpicuous, and fuffici- 
ently intelligible at the prefent day. That he verfified 
with great facility is evident from the prodigious number 
and variety of his performances; but it is rarely that a 
melodious or elegant line cheers the dry nefs and rugged- 
nefs of his tedious pages. His principal pieces are the 
Fall of Princes, from Boccacio; the Story of Thebes, 
chiefly 
