ENCYCLOPAEDIA LONDINENSIS; 
OR, AN 
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 
OF 
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE. 
L. 
I A liquid confonant, the eleventh letter of the al- 
^jt) phabet, which preferves always the fame found in 
Englifli. It is founded by intercepting the breath between 
the tip of the tongue and fore part of the palate, with the 
mouth open ; and makes a fweet found, with fomething 
of an afpiration; and therefore the Britons and Spaniards 
ufually doubled it, or added an h to it, in the beginning 
of words, as in llan, or Ilian, (Welch,) a temple, found¬ 
ing nearly like JL, &c. In the Saxon alfo it was alpirated ; 
as, hlap, loaf ; hlacpbig, lady. 
At the end of a monofyllable it is doubled ; as, all, well, 
Jhall, Jlill, kill, full ; fome of which monofyllables, as kill, 
full. See. were originally written kille,fulle ; and when the 
ffirlt became filent, and was afterwards omitted, the// was 
retained, to give force, according to the analogy of our 
language, to the foregoing vowel. After a diphthong, / 
is written fingle ; as , fail,feel, veal, cool-, and in words of 
more than one fylTable ; as, channel, canal, tendril. L is 
placed after moft of the confonants in the beginning of 
words and fyllables ; as, black, glare, eagle, &cc. but before 
none. It is fometimes placed before e, and founded fee¬ 
bly, fo that it may be doubtful whether it Hands before 
or after it; as, table, fiuttle, bible, battle, or battel-, like the 
letter r, in ufing which, from the doubtfulnefs of the 
found, we write indifferently centre or center, feeptre or 
feepter. See R. 
There are feveral people, for inftance, the Chinefe in 
Afia, the Illinois in America, &c. who cannot pronounce 
the r, but always change it into /. Thus when any of 
them have been baptized by the name of Petrus, Francifats, 
&c. they always pronounce it Petlus, Flancifcus, &c. 
The // is a modern contrivance, and was never ufed 
among ancient Roman authors ; they wrote alium, not al¬ 
lium-, macelum, not macellum-, polucere, not pollucere. The 
ll of the Greeks was fometimes changed by the Romans 
into li -, as, alius ; (pvhXov, folium. L is alfo frequent¬ 
ly ufed inftead of d, as in Ulyjfts, from the Greek O^W<ru?, 
In that Aiolic dialeft I'^va-an;. Thus alfo for dautia, we 
fay lautia ; for dacrumre, lacrymce, See. 
The figure of our L we borrowed from the Latins, they 
from the Greeks, and they again from the Hebrews, whole 
lamed is much like our L, excepting that the angle is fome- 
what more acute. L was alfo a numeral letter among the 
ancients, and is ftill fo in the Roman ciphering, fignify- 
ing fifty. When a dafh was added at the top, it flood for 
fifty thoufand. L was ufed for fifty, being half a C, which 
dignified a hundred, and was formerly written thus E, 
which, according to Pafquiie, makes two LL, the one up¬ 
right, the other inverted. 
The French Louis-d’ors have a crofs on them, confid¬ 
ing of eight L’s interwoven. The letter L is marked on 
the money coined at Bayonne. L, as an abbreviature, 
Hands for Lucius; and LLS, for a fefterce. In Englilh it 
denotes a pound fterling, 
VOL. XII. No. 06 , 
LA,/ A note in mufic ; the fixt’n found in Guido’s feale. 
LA'A, a town of Auftria : four miles fouth of Vienna. 
LA'AB, or La'va, a town of Auftria, on the river 
Taya. In the year 1278, a battle was fought here between 
the emperor Rodolphus, and Ottocar king of Bohemia, 
in which the latter was flain ; and, in the year 1645, it was 
taken by the Swedes: twelve miles eaft-fouth-eaft of 
Znaym, and twenty-fix north of Vienna. Lat. 48. 39, N. 
Ion. 16. 16. E. 
LAA'DAH, [Hebrew .3 A man’s name. 
LAA'DAM, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
LAAD'STEE, a town of Norway: 112 miles north of 
Bergen. 
LAA'GE, a town of Mecklenburg: fourteen miles 
fouth-eafl of Roftock. Lat. 55. 58. N. Ion. 12. 30. E. 
LAA'LAND, or La'land, an ifland of Denmark, fi- 
tuated at the entrance into the Baltic from the Greater 
Belt; about fifty miles in length, and twelve in its mean 
breadth, and reckoned the moft fertile fpot in the Daniflt 
dominions. This ifland produces plenty of all forts of 
grain, particularly very fine wheat and excellent peate. 
It is alfo famous for a kind of red fruit called manna, 
which refembles fweet almonds in tafte, and grows on a 
long flender ftem. Laaland is not without woods, which, 
however, are more frequent on the eaft than on the weft: 
of the ifland. The inhabitants make little account of 
grazing, as they find that the cultivation of corn turns 
out to greater advantage. But, notwithftanding all thefe 
conveniencies, as the country lies low, and the foil is 
damp, the air is very unhealthy. Of all the inhabitants 
of this ifland the clergy are beft provided for, according 
to their rank. The nobility are numerous here, and many 
of them have very fine feats, and confiderable eftates. 
This ifland, like Falfter, has a particular governor; but 
in fpiritual affairs both are under the jurildifition of the 
bifhop of Funen. Nafkow is the capital. Lat. 54. 40. to 
55. N. Ion. 10. 59. to 11. 52. E. 
LAALGUN'GE, a town of Hindooftan, in Oude: 
twenty-five miles eaft of Manickpour. 
LAA'NE, a river of France, which runs into the Dyle 
near Louvain. 
LA'AR. See Lar. 
LA'AR’s BANK', a flioal in the Eaftern Indian Sea. 
Lat. 5.45. S. Ion. 118.45. E. 
LAARAT', an ifland in the Eaftern Indian Sea, about 
fifty miles in circumference. Lat. 6. 48. S. Ion. 132. 36. E. 
LAAR'CHUS, the guardian of Battus of Cyrene. He 
ufurped the fovereign power for fome time, and endea¬ 
voured to marry the mother of Battus, the better to efta- 
blifh his tyranny. The queen gave him a friendly invi¬ 
tation ; but caufed him to beaflalfinated, and reftored the 
power to Battus. Polyanas. 
LA'AS, f [from laqueus, a lax, Lat. fraud.] A net, 
gin, or fnare. 
B LA'AS, 
